It’s been a busy year for laptops. Apple’s value-priced MacBook Neo caused a major shakeup in the budget space, forcing Windows device makers to respond with their own premium, affordable offerings. Microsoft nixed its original 16GB requirement for AI PCs, ushering in a slew of new 8GB Wildcat Lake options, and further muddied the waters of its Copilot branding after vowing to improve performance on 8GB Windows PCs.

The driving force behind all of this is, of course, is the roughly five-fold increase in RAM costs in the past year, driven by AI hyperscaler demand. That’s also why Valve delayed the Steam Machine by roughly six months, eventually forcing its launch price above $1,000. That completely negated the value proposition that made the Steam Deck a success for so long. And I think Google’s new laptops are in a similarly tough spot, for many of the same reasons.

The new Googlebook laptop platform – an AI-focused reimagining of its successful Chromebook platform, complete with its own 16GB RAM requirement and prices that (apart from a limited-time $899 offer from Acer) start at $999. Models from Lenovo and Asus even stretch into MacBook Air pricing territory.

But, like Valve’s gaming hardware, Google’s previous laptop success has hinged primarily on affordability. Chromebooks launched in 2011, with three models all priced around $500, and Acer again undercut its competition at $349. There have been “high-end” Chromebooks over the years, but the vast majority have remained fairly affordable.

Cutting-edge Android 17 cutoff

Android phone integration (akin to an iPhone / MacBook pairing) is one of the major new selling points of the Googlebook platform. But you need a phone running Android 17 for that integration to work. That OS iteration launched just four months ago and, so far, is only available on a handful of expensive phones.

Aside from severely limiting the number of current customers, this also ignores the fundamental realities of the Android phone market. The majority of Android devices sold every year are mainstream and budget models. Even with the same RAM and storage pressures pushing prices up, less than 30% of global phone shipments are models priced higher than $600 — and that number includes iPhones, all of which are priced above that mark, unless you’re buying from a reseller.

So in short, Google is launching a new, mostly $1,000-plus (at least for now) laptop platform, hoping to piggyback off the brand recognition and mindshare of its search engine, cheap Chromebooks, and (largely) cheap Android phones. This is at a time when the price of almost everything else has also been on the rise for years, and both Apple and Microsoft’s Windows partners are offering up the best sub-$700 laptops… arguably ever.

It’s hard not to see this as poor timing, at best. Given software and hardware lead times, Googlebooks as a concept were almost certainly pretty far along a year ago when RAM pricing started to skyrocket. But with solid indications that the cost of RAM and storage could continue to climb into next year and beyond, Google may have effectively been forced into an “if not now, when” launch window, which also seems to have been the case with the Steam Machine launch earlier this year.

Nvidia’s RTX Spark is a completely different laptop animal

Of course, Nvidia’s also brand-new Spark laptops are priced much higher, starting at $2,599 and going up to $5,899 or even $6,999 for 128GB models. But those Nvidia-silicon laptops are aimed primarily at AI coders, not average Android-toting consumers who might also be interested in AI features. And, in case you somehow haven’t noticed, Nvidia has become one of the largest companies in the world by selling ever-pricier GPUs to gamers, workstation users, and the global AI hyperscaler market. Nvidia may be halting RTX 5090 production in favor of more profitable AI hardware, despite that gaming GPU continuing to sell out while being consistently priced thousands of dollars above its MSRP. Early indications point to similar demand for at least some Spark laptops, with preorders of Microsoft’s 128GB Surface Laptop Ultra seemingly sold out before the platform even officially launches.

Google’s hardware division, meanwhile, has spent the last 15 years selling its mostly budget laptop platform, while repeatedly attempting and failing to make premium Google-designed devices a mainstream success. Yes, there was the Chromebook Plus rollout in 2023, but those devices were mostly priced below $700, and multiple retailer list filters suggest the sub-$500 models are the most popular. Even Google’s flagship Pixel phones are priced well below flagships from Samsung and Apple.

This is a strange time to go upmarket, to require 16GB of RAM, and to launch a new laptop OS and platform at all, considering PC shipments are down 20%. And that’s especially true if you’re Google, a company known primarily for free, ad-supported software and services, and hardware that you primarily buy because it’s what you can afford, not because it’s what you want.

Chromebooks have gotten a bad rap. The systems have often been seen as glorified web browsers designed only for schools. But with Googlebooks, Google is making a renewed push to show its laptops are designed to be full-on PCs, running a new operating system that feels more like Android than anything else.

Googlebook OS is also designed to merge your Android phone and your laptop in a way that has never been seen outside of Apple’s macOS and iOS devices.

And of course, Google has packed Googlebook OS full of AI features. Some of these are unique to the new laptops, while others, like Rambler, have been introduced on Android phones before.

The new undertaking currently has five hardware partners: Dell, Lenovo, HP, Acer, and Asus. The hardware that we tested is generally sound, though I wouldn't mind a bit more battery life.It's the OS itself that needs some more time in the oven. It largely feels like Android, with some features nailed on to fit a desktop OS. Despite the expansive Google Play Store, the platform is still limited and largely centered around the web browser.

In some ways, Googlebooks are more powerful than Chromebooks could ever be. In other ways, they feel like they haven't yet grown into a full PC operating system.

Googlebook Hardware

I've spent the last few days using the Lenovo Googlebook 15, HP Googlebook 14, and Dell’s XPS Googlebook. In general, if you've seen some recent Windows laptops, you've seen this hardware. The HP Googlebook 14 is clearly based off around the HP OmniBook Ultra, while the Dell XPS Googlebook is a carbon copy of the Dell XPS 13 — although there is a haptic touchpad in this version. I have few complaints there — both of those are solid machines, though I still wish HP would move away from the keyboards without spaces around the keys.

Of the systems, the HP feels the most premium, but I've come to appreciate Lenovo's airy design with the all-white Lenovo Googlebook 15. Despite the 15.3-inch OLED screen, the mix of carbon fiber with aluminum and magnesium doesn't feel as high-end, but is light at approximately 2.84 pounds.

HP and Lenovo both include beautiful 2880 x 1800 OLED screens, while Dell opted for a 2560 x 1600 LCD panel instead.

While ports, materials, and screens might differ, all of the Googlebooks share a few things in common. The first is the Glowbar, which originated on the Chromebook Pixel and Pixel C tablet. Here, it serves as the sole unifying element that tells anyone looking at you that yes, you're using a Googlebook. When you turn the system on or put it to sleep, it has a nice rainbow pattern, but otherwise it largely glows white. It dances around when you speak to Gemini, and when you plug or unplug the device, it indicates battery life with colors (green, yellow, red) and flashing when the battery is low or there’s a charging problem.

Other than turning the Glowbar off, there's not much customization. Or rather, there isn’t unless you find the hidden Glowbar Disco app, which Google is positioning as an easter egg. (SPOILER ALERT: Go to Settings > Apps and click "See all [Number] apps." Click on the three dots in the corner and click "Show System." Click "Glowbar Disco" and press the External arrow button. This launches Glowbar Disco.)Glowbar Disco lets you choose a custom color, preset gradient, or a series of animations like a Knight Rider-style scanner, a rainbow, or my favorite "vibe code," which looks like the letters from The Matrix dropping. You can also set it to sync to music, which is set as "experimental." That's funny, given how hidden this app is. Effects aren't persistent when you close the app, and you can't even pin the app to the taskbar to easily reset it.

The other major similarity across all of the hardware is the keyboards. Google has a shared layout across all of the devices, including a G key that opens the app launcher and works with shortcuts, a Caps Lock key that doubles as Quick Insert, and, on F1 through F3, are the Back, Show Homescreen, and Overview buttons (The latter shows all open apps). These feel like throwbacks to Android phones before they largely went gesture-based, though they can still be found in Settings on Android phones today.

Performance: Intel vs. Qualcomm

There are two chips in the first crop of Googlebooks. The HP Googlebook 14 and Dell XPS Googlebook are powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite X1-80-100, while the rest are using Intel's Core Series 3 "Panther Lake" processors, specifically the Core Ultra 5 325 in the Lenovo Googlebook 15.Since launch, there have been questions about app compatibility on the Intel models, as most Android apps are designed to run on Arm chips in phones. Google and Intel are in a bit of a back-and-forth over how many Android apps simply work on Intel right now. I've also found a few glitches in the Android based-version of Googlebook OS, like popping icons on the taskbar. Perhaps most notably, when trying browsers that weren't Chrome, the Arm-based Googlebooks were able to run Microsoft Edge, while the Intel-based Lenovo had issues. That app is marked as being "compatible with desktop" in the Play Store.

In benchmarks, we found that the Snapdragon X1 Elite models outperformed the singular Intel option we had to test. Notably, though, that's Qualcomm's high-end Oryon chip (albeit from its first generation) compared to an Intel Core Ultra 5. We didn't have a system with an Intel Core Ultra 7.

In Geekbench 7, the Snapdragon-based systems edged out the Lenovo Googlebook with Intel, particularly in multi-core. But on WebXPRT4, the Lenovo system won. Google claims people spend 70% of their time in the browser.

On 3DMark's Steel Nomad Light, the Snapdragon systems won out again, though not by a ton. If you're doing a lot of Android gaming, it's worth noting.

On our battery test, the Intel-based Lenovo won out at 11:52, while the HP hit 10:25 and the XPS reached 10:04. None of these are amazing times. Our Googlebook battery test browses a list of 30 live websites on a loop at 150 nits of brightness.

It's also notable that while Googlebooks as a class have at least 16GB of RAM, they appear, according to their task managers, to always have at least 7-8GB in use, likely housing local AI models to be ready at any moment.

Googlebook OS

If you use an Android phone, specifically one of Google's Pixels, you'll feel right at home with a Googlebook. For all the talk of merging ChromeOS and Android, Googlebook OS really feels like an Android phone, just on a laptop.

There's a taskbar on the bottom (there's no way to move that yet — shades of Windows 11 there), and the systems come with some precreated folders for Google apps on the desktop. There's also a dedicated My Googlebook app on the desktop to teach you the ropes.

Along the very top, there's a status bar with the time, date, a button to turn on the Magic Cursor, and some quick settings that can be accessed by clicking the Wi-Fi and battery icons (think macOS' Control Center).

Apps are in the G Menu, and, if you have a phone paired, it appears next to it with a separate drawer of apps you can cast to your phone.

It's quite simple — especially if your primary app is Google Chrome. If you use the rest of Google's ecosystem, like Photos, Calendar, and Messages, you'll almost be set up out of the box (they all wanted me to confirm my Google account, which was a bit annoying). In fact, if you don't use all of those services, I question the value of buying a Googlebook at all.

But the simplicity and elasticity of Android only goes so far. While it's clearly flexible enough to become a desktop OS, there are some areas where you can just tell the team needed more time.

For starters, a lot of the spacing feels meant for touch. When I right clicked on the desktop for context menus, there would be a significant amount of space to move my mouse. But when I touched the screen, that spacing felt natural for my finger.

You see more of that in the Files app. It's lacking features that make some sense on a phone but don't on a computer. For example, there are no forward and back buttons. Instead, you have to navigate through folders or the path at the bottom of the screen. Additionally, the Files app doesn't let you pin or re-order the folders in the sidebar.

Perhaps the most damning, given how flexible ChromeOS is with profiles, is that the version of Google Chrome on Googlebook OS doesn't, as of this writing, support multiple profiles. That breaks plenty of people's workflows, especially those who have separate accounts for work and personal use.

The best thought-out desktop feature is Quick Insert. Having a key that serves as a go-to place for your clipboard history, suggested emojis, recent browsing, and links to tools is a real time saver when you don't want to click around looking for them all.

All the apps you want, as long as you like the Play Store

The only way to install apps on a Googlebook is through the Play Store. That is where the system is most locked down. Unlike Windows, macOS, and Linux, you can't install software from the web browser.

In the Play Store, Google has five "desktop ratings" that lets you get an idea of how an app works on a Googlebook. Made for Desktop is the gold standard, which means it's a desktop-first app with features and controls designed for a mouse and keyboard. Optimized for Desktop is a close second, in which an app has been adjusted for the bigger screen.

Compatible with Desktop means a keyboard and mouse will work. After that, you get Better on the Website. Slack gave me this, as did Duolingo. Lastly, Built for Mobile means you'll get the app, but it will be formatted for a smartphone.

Compatible with Desktop doesn't always mean great. One of my go-to mobile games, Marvel Snap, is compatible, but it stretches out and leaves black bars on the sides. It did, however, support Google's ability to map touch to keyboard controls, though that's not really appropriate for this game. Given this game has a widescreen version on Steam, I'd hope Google could get developer Second Dinner to make it work on Google Play just as well.

Designed for Mobile should be a last resort. I downloaded my bank app, and I regretted not just going to the website.

Google's own apps are a mixed bag. Gmail and Calendar are just web apps in a nice wrapper. At least Messages feels like a proper Android app.

One issue I had is that when I connected a phone at setup, it offered to transfer my apps. It auto-selected some, like Apple Music (Optimized for Desktop), but left a bunch off. But I thought I'd want some, so I picked them. At that time, it didn't tell me why they left them off, though I'm guessing it's the lack of optimization many of them later displayed.

In many ways, that lack of optimization means that Googlebooks still feel like Chromebooks, with web apps as a major fallback. There are some major apps, like Photoshop, Netflix, Fantastical (leaving the Apple ecosystem!), Obsidian, Notability, Zoom, and Microsoft Office all optimized or straight up designed for desktop. But it's not enough just yet. Google really needs developers on board.

The other option is installing apps through a Linux virtual machine, but I don't recommend it (see below).

Cross-device use

The other trick up these Googlebooks' sleeve is to pair your laptop and phone together more closely than has ever been done before. In many ways, it's impressive. You can share notifications and drag files to and from devices wirelessly in the Files app.

Perhaps the biggest issue was finding a phone that worked. Google keeps it in the fine print that you need a phone with Android 17 to get the best cross-device features, like app casting, Continue On, and Quick Access in the Files app. If you have a phone that doesn't have Android 17 yet, like the Samsung Galaxy S23 I had set up ahead of this review, you'll only be able to use the phone to set up the computer and transfer apps. This is surely a technical hurdle, but one that leaves out the vast majority of people with Android phones right now.

Google loaned us a Pixel 10 Pro XL to test these features, and it's important they did. Even Samsung's Android phones, the most popular in the United States, don't all work with Googlebooks yet. On Reddit, one Google staffer wrote that support "will be rolling out across all Android 17-supported Samsung devices over the coming weeks. Sorry for the inconvenience!" News broke just days ago that support was rolling out for Samsung phones running Android 17 and Samsung’s One UI 9, but we still had issues connecting a Samsung S25 Ultra after initial setup with Dell’s XPS Googlebook.

Otherwise, perhaps my biggest issue was that you have to turn on a bunch of settings that you may not have turned on yet. Even Google's reviewer's guide had a bunch of steps to enable cross-device settings, and, if that didn't work, on its own, a series of restarts or QR code scans. When it works, though, it takes, and the experience is far better than what you get on Windows.

The key word being "when." I didn't always get notifications. I couldn't drag some small files from my Googlebook to the phone, and I still don't know why.

Casting Apps was my favorite use case, especially apps I wouldn't really install on my laptop. Unfortunately, there was some lag and hiccups with connections, both at work and at home, which occasionally made the whole thing unusable. It's impressive, however, that you can have your Android phone running other apps while you have one open only on your Googlebook; Apple's casting method mirrors the whole phone, so it can only be on a Mac or on the phone itself.

Continue On is also appreciated. Like Apple's continuity, I could be browsing the web on my phone and pick it back up on the laptop. I just wish it worked with more apps, as it mostly works with Google's work suite and Chrome.

So many ways to use Gemini

Googlebooks are smothered in AI. For the most part, you never have to use it, but the system is all about teaching you at first. For example, there are early prompts to learn about the Magic Cursor, which lets you click on something and share it with Gemini immediately.

It's quicker than copy and paste, but I never found myself using it as often as I expected. Maybe the next time I see a shirt I like, I’ll try it.

The idea of making your own widget is really neat, but I wish it was more flexible. Sure, countdowns and motivational quotes are fun, but when I asked the AI to create a widget showing me CPU usage, it denied me, expressly telling me that system telemetry wasn't allowed.

The most impressive thing, which Google should talk about even more, is Rambler. This isn't new to Googlebooks — it's already on Android phones. It lets you talk, make mistakes, and still correct your statements into what you ultimately meant. For people who talk to their computers and use dictation, this is powerful to have on the computer alongside the phone.

The one I worry the most about is Antigravity. This comes preinstalled, without a care if you are a developer. In theory, this is empowering Googlebook users to make their own apps. On the other hand, there's a reason AI models keep asking for human intervention and approval. The agentic-first IDE may let anyone make prompts, but given that your agents can execute shell commands, it's far safer if you understand what they're doing. I expect many people to just hit "yes" without knowing what they're talking about, but hey, it's just bringing vibe coding to more people.

Gemini is also sprinkled throughout Google's apps, and you can also talk to it with a simple "Hey Google" command. I would argue these systems are best if you are a Gemini user, if only because you'll get so many features.

The Debian Linux Terminal

Each Googlebook comes with a Debian Linux terminal and virtual machine preinstalled. I was able to install apps, like the photo editor GIMP and Steam for gaming, but I don't find these Linux apps decent replacements for most people.

For starters, the apps in the VM live there, and only there. You can't put them in the app drawer and run them separately later.

The VM is also laggy. Even lightweight games like Dead Cells didn't always run fluidly, and I had some issues with the sound making popping and groaning noises.

Resizing windows and using some tools in GIMP resulting in its own lag. This might work for basic development testing, but for applications, you're better off sticking with the Play Store or web apps.

Too early to tell, but already on sale

It's too early to render judgment on the ultimate fate of Googlebooks. If you like using Android on your phone and do everything on the web or Android apps, you can make this work.

Google clearly has some work to do to make Googlebook OS feel truly at home with a keyboard and mouse. And it needs a ton of developers to optimize their apps to feel like you're not using them on a phone when you put them on a big screen. With enough of them, the Googlebook platform will feel far more friendly.

At the moment, I think people should wait and see how the Googlebook platform evolves. If you buy now, you're getting the early adopter experience. There's too much that doesn't work as it should for you to spend your hard-earned money on these. The hardware is there, but Google's software doesn't feel done.

Google should ensure users’ favorite apps work no matter which silicon platform they use, and they should be darn sure their phone will work with the system they have. And prospective buyers should definitely wait and see if Google delivers on its promises that developers will improve their apps.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang announced the RTX Spark platform with the grand ambition to “reinvent the PC” back at Computex 2026. By pairing the GB10 Superchip with a version of Windows on Arm tailored for the secure and contained execution of local AI agents, Nvidia and its partners at Microsoft, Dell, HP, MSI, Lenovo, and Asus are all hoping to pave the way to a future where the PC is an active, autonomous companion for work and creation.

The hardware foundation for that vision of the future is now in place. Last week, we flew out to San Francisco to get all the details on the RTX Spark platform, and we returned home with Microsoft’s Surface Laptop Ultra in top-end trim to put it all to the test.

This system has the full RTX Spark Superchip with 20 CPU cores and 6144 CUDA cores alongside 128GB of LPDDR5X-9400 RAM, and I’ve been putting it through its paces over the past week to see just what it can do.

The embargoes for the RTX Spark launch are a bit peculiar. Today, we’ll be sharing our broad experience with the Spark platform, as well as competitive performance evaluations, but not any system-specific results such as battery life, build or display quality, or other details of that nature. We have other RTX Spark laptops in the Tom’s Hardware labs, and detailed reviews of those systems will be coming soon.

No, this approach doesn’t make a lot of sense when the experience of a mobile platform is intimately and inextricably tied to the specific implementation of that chip in a particular laptop design. And we know that battery life is the first and foremost concern of many interested in this platform. But again, all that information is coming soon.

For this first round of testing, we compared the Microsoft Surface Laptop Ultra with RTX Spark against two systems. The first is a 14" MacBook Pro with Apple's highest-end M5 Max SoC inside. That Mac has a 40-core GPU and an 18-core CPU, as well as 128 GB of LPDDR5X RAM. We don't have a mobile Ryzen AI Max+ 395 system in the labs right now, but we do have AMD's compact Ryzen AI Halo as a source of fresh data with the latest ROCm stack and llama.cpp builds.

Local AI performance

Judging local AI performance is a constantly moving target, and this review is no different. Our past testing has exercised the prompt processing and token generation phases of AI inference separately, with the understanding that a system that's fast at both those phases provides the best experience.

But in an agentic workflow, that benchmarking technique doesn't capture the total time required to complete a task across all the inference turns needed to reach a particular goal. To capture that entire end-to-end time, the folks at Artificial Analysis have developed a new benchmark, AgentPerf-local, that precisely replays inference traces across several agentic AI tasks. The value of this approach should make immediate sense: the faster an AI agent finishes a job, the more productive a system can be.

So instead of presenting raw time-to-first-token and tokens-per-second figures, as we have in the past, we’re sharing time-to-completion values as we would for more traditional CPU and content creation benchmarks.

Again, local AI benchmarking is a continuous work in progress, so let us know what you think of this approach, and we’ll take that feedback into account as we continue to develop our methods.

We ran AgentPerf-local with two compatible models: the dense Qwen 3.8-27B, which is popular as one of the most intelligent local models available for its size, and the Qwen 3.6 35B A3B mixture-of-experts model, which is less intelligent but easier for a wide range of systems to run quickly. We used the latest build of llama.cpp as our inference backend and built it from source on each test system to take advantage of CUDA, Metal, or ROCm acceleration, as appropriate.

Let’s look at Qwen 3.8 27B’s behavior first. We used Unsloth’s Q4_K_M quantization of the model. We ran it with DFlash2 speculative decoding on the RTX Spark and MacBook Pro, and with Qwen 3.8 27B’s built-in MTP on the Ryzen AI Halo for the best performance.

As we found in our benchmarking of Apple's Mac Studio with the M4 Max SoC, memory bandwidth is only one constraint for local AI performance. Despite its memory bandwidth advantage on paper, the M5 Max MacBook Pro still ends up taking about 25% longer to finish the AgentPerf benchmark with Qwen 3.8 27B than the Surface Laptop Ultra with RTX Spark.

Part of that may be down to software maturity, but it's also worth remembering that our Surface Laptop Ultra is a 15" system with a much larger 140W power adapter versus the 14" MacBook Pro's 96W charger.

The 16" M5 Max MacBook Pro also comes with a 140W adapter, and we'd be curious to see whether the extra power and higher thermal headroom afforded by that system’s larger chassis help close the gap here. But in any event, the RTX Spark platform is the fastest overall at this task today.

Meanwhile, AMD's nearly two-year-old Ryzen AI Max+ 395 just can't keep up with either of these newer systems in this demanding test. It needs about twice as long to finish our agentic tests with Qwen 3.8 27B as either the RTX Spark or the MacBook Pro do, at a whopping 40 minutes.

The fact that the Ryzen AI Halo is a mini desktop form factor rather than a notebook doesn’t much matter to these results, as any power and thermal headroom that design might afford can’t possibly overcome the performance gap here.

Next up, we have the lighter-weight Qwen 3.6 35B A3B. We ran Unsloth’s Q4_K_M quantization of this model with MTP enabled.

The Surface Laptop Ultra ends up completing this test in just eight minutes, or about 25% faster than the 14” MacBook Pro’s 10 minutes. This test is also much friendlier to the Ryzen AI Halo, which finished the benchmark in a more reasonable 13 minutes. But that just emphasizes that you have to trade away model intelligence to get a reasonable level of performance out of Strix Halo.

AMD has recently gone on a publicity blitz to highlight the relatively low cost of entry for Strix Halo systems versus DGX Spark desktops and now RTX Spark laptops. But if time is money, and getting more intelligent tokens out of your local AI system faster means more potentially profitable agentic work gets done, then a more expensive system upfront will be able to do more of that work and potentially generate more value over time.

Gaming performance: first impressions

Despite its RTX branding and the emphasis Nvidia places on its 6144-CUDA-core GPU (or 48 SMs), the RTX Spark platform faces some tough challenges for gaming. Most games available today are not going to be natively compiled for its Arm CPU, and even for those that might be, the maximum 300 GB/s of shared memory bandwidth the platform offers is well below that of even the RTX 5060 Mobile's dedicated 384 GB/s feeding 26 SMs.

The entire GB10 SoC is competing for a relatively small amount of memory bandwidth, and because graphics is generally a memory-bandwidth-bound workload, that's not a great start for feeding all of those SMs in games.

I started my gaming explorations with Gears of War: E-Day. In this exceptionally CPU-heavy game, it's clear that the baseline performance of the Grace CPU cores and the added overhead of the Prism x86 emulator are doing this title no favors.

GPU utilization only reaches the 85% mark on average at a near-1080p (1908x1272) render resolution with the High preset and 2X framegen, and we saw at least one major hang during a map transition that was less than confidence-inspiring for an immersive experience as we progress further into the game.

Because of its CPU dependence, Gears is probably a worst-case scenario for this platform, but the fact remains that it's not a great experience, and turning down settings or lowering upscaling input resolutions just exacerbates the CPU-boundedness of this title. If any game could use a native Arm build, this is the one.

Control Resonant is significantly less dependent on the CPU, but that just means that the other potential gaming shortcomings of the RTX Spark Superchip seem to come into play.

After struggling a bit to achieve a solid frame rate and input latency at the Surface Laptop Ultra's native 3270x2180 output resolution even with DLSS upscaling, I found that running the game in windowed mode at 2560x1440 with DLSS Performance upscaling, the High preset, and MFG 3X to keep frame rates near the Surface Laptop Ultra's 120Hz refresh rate provided better results. (This system's tall 3:2 aspect ratio means that 16:9 fullscreen games don't cleanly scale up.)

But even then, input latency was above what I would consider acceptable on our standard GPU test rig, and enabling ray tracing at all dipped frame rates and spiked input latency even further, so I had to stick to raster-only rendering for the best results.

Overall, my early RTX Spark gaming verdict is that you can do it, and you can have a fine enough time, but it is not the primary focus of this platform. Gaming performance with the relatively limited memory bandwidth of the RTX Spark Superchip, combined with the system's CPU performance and the overhead of Prism emulation, mean that you'll be searching for a narrow range of settings where baseline frame rates, upscaling, image quality, and the smoothness boost of frame generation still yield acceptable input latency.

When I first approached gaming on this platform, I had expected that DLSS upscaling would be a required part of the experience, but in practice, you really need to lean on DLSS Frame Generation, as well, whether that's for added smoothness (as in Gears of War) or for both smoothness and the benefits of Nvidia Reflex due to developer choices behind the scenes (as in Control Resonant).

Even with Reflex, though, the Grace CPU generally seems to deliver input latencies significantly higher than I'm used to on our Ryzen 7 9800X3D test rig, and it's hard to get them much lower in these AAA titles by tweaking settings.

If you demand the lowest input latency and the highest performance with cutting-edge games, especially if you plan to enable RT, a separate gaming laptop with a dedicated RTX 50-series GPU will still provide a superior experience. And if you just don’t care about local AI at all, that advice applies even more strongly.

Bottom line

Nvidia's RTX Spark is an ambitious new PC platform for the traditional workloads of today and the potential agentic AI work of tomorrow. How often do we see an entirely new player try to elbow into the crowded and competitive PC space, especially one with a sweeping vision for how the PC will be used in the years to come? An incremental move this is not.

Our general performance tests and new agentic AI tests show that despite providing merely solid CPU performance and relatively low bandwidth for a unified memory architecture on paper, the Blackwell GPU on board GB10 has enough AI horsepower in practice to let the RTX Spark platform come out ahead of Apple's latest top-end M5 Max and AMD's Ryzen AI Max+ 395, aka Strix Halo, SoCs.

Whether you choose the highly intelligent dense Qwen 3.8 27B model and trade raw speed for intelligence, or make the opposite trade with the lighter and faster Qwen 3.6 35B A3B, the RTX Spark comes out on top. That bodes well for pairing popular agents like Hermes with intelligent local models on this platform.

But Nvidia's mission to reinvent the PC isn't a total grand slam in this first iteration.

First, this platform won't replace a dedicated gaming laptop. Even for those who only game on the side and have more forgiving standards for frame rates and input latency, the RTX Spark's gaming performance may not measure up to expectations.

When you put the overhead of Prism x86 emulation on top of the merely adequate performance of the Grace CPU, it’s clear that the Spark platform will have to work hard to keep up in the vast range of games that don’t have an Arm port.

The CPU-heavy Gears of War: E-Day is particularly unkind to the Prism-on-Grace stack, but even when a title like Control Resonant doesn't lean so heavily on the CPU, the limited and shared memory bandwidth of the GB10 SoC still poses an obstacle to cranking settings to the max despite the large amount of theoretical compute horsepower on tap.

We're also still waiting for Windows to fully catch up to Nvidia's ambitions for secure, manageable local agents. Our laptop expert Andrew Freedman and I couldn't test Microsoft's secure agentic AI promises within Windows 11, as the supporting features that Microsoft and Nvidia have promised to that end just aren't ready yet.

Still, for a first-generation mobile platform that joins complex silicon IP from multiple design teams onto one chip and relies on several OEM partners to bring it to life in highly integrated notebook form factors, the maturity of the RTX Spark platform is an impressive achievement. (Take it from someone who has seen a couple of rough product launches from the inside.)

Over the past week, I've been using the RTX Spark-powered Surface Laptop Ultra as I would any other Windows laptop, and aside from a couple of tiny paper cuts, I have mostly just gotten my work done as I would with any other computer. And that’s a great — albeit a very, very expensive — place to be as the local agentic AI future coalesces.

Perhaps the biggest challenge for the RTX Spark platform is that the eye-watering price tags for the range of systems available at launch still buy a lot of cloud tokens from OpenAI and Anthropic. Emphasis on a lot. The Surface Laptop Ultra we tested lists for $5899 with only 1TB of storage, and lead times for that system are already out to late December.

If you're not as concerned about keeping sensitive data out of those labs’ clouds, or you don't expect to run afoul of acceptable usage policies, you'll get much smarter tokens much faster than you will from a local token factory like the RTX Spark, and you can get them on most any reasonably powered traditional PC you have available.

But if you're surfing the AI wave on local hardware for reasons of privacy, offline model availability, freedom to tinker, or just because you think it's cool, the RTX Spark platform blends the memory capacity, compute performance, and software resources you need to get there with the familiarity and broad compatibility of Windows on top. The fact that Nvidia, Microsoft, and their partners have delivered such a capable, compatible, and polished platform even in its first at-bat should put the rest of the PC industry on notice.

Nvidia’s efforts to reshape personal computing will face strong headwinds in the immediate future from the sky-high DRAM and NAND price hikes that the company’s own Vera Rubin rollout is partially responsible for. Perhaps when the dust settles in the next two to three years, and products built around the next-generation RTX Spark Superchips arrive, we can more confidently assess whether the company has accomplished its goal.

For now, the RTX Spark feels like a platform for those who fervently believe that open AI models will continue to get more intelligent within relatively small memory footprints, and that those potential future improvements are worth a hefty chunk of change to get ready for today. Maybe that's a smart bet in a world where compute is an increasingly precious resource. But unless you're a true believer with cash to burn, our first impressions suggest that you should wait until Microsoft and Nvidia fully lay the software foundation needed for this platform to deliver on its promises.

When Framework introduced the Laptop 12 early last year, it offered an affordable, repairable, and relatively capable laptop, especially aimed at students. Between a 2-in-1 convertible design, a touchscreen with an optional stylus, the slim frame, and a $699 starting price, it was an attractive option. The updated Framework Laptop 12 targets that same group, though it’s entering a very different market, with some of the biggest brands gunning to become frontrunners for the best college laptops. Framework still makes one of the best laptops on the market with the Laptop 13 Pro, but the entry-level market is a different beast, especially today.

Apple’s MacBook Neo has prompted a wave of more affordable Windows laptops, with Intel’s Wildcat Lake taking center stage in devices like Dell’s refreshed XPS 13. The Framework Laptop 12 provides competitive performance with these devices, though at a higher price point and with less premium amenities.

The 1080p, 60Hz display is a reminder that the otherwise-premium-feeling Laptop 12 is a budget device, and although the Laptop 12 starts at just $549 without memory or storage, it ends up around $200 to $300 more expensive than the competition when fully configured. The laptop begs a question: how much are you willing to pay for repairability?

Design

Like Framework’s previous Laptop 12 with 13th-Gen Intel CPUs, the updated version with Wildcat Lake comes in a variety of colors: Black, Gray, Lavender, Bubblegum, and Sage. Our review unit, as you can see, is the Lavender variation. At the time of writing, you need to purchase the DIY version to choose your color; the prebuilt version is currently only available in Sage.

Unlike Framework’s more expensive Laptop 13 Pro, you don’t have the option to customize the color of the bezels, and only Gray and Lavender keyboard options are available now (though, presumably, Framework will expand these options). USB-A and USB-C modules come in a wide array of colors, as well, though other expansion modules are limited to a standard silver color. Framework also offers an optional $59 stylus, matching the color options available for the Laptop 12.

The Framework Laptop 12 is a highly portable device, though perhaps not as thin and light as you’d expect out of a 12-inch laptop. It's 0.72 inches thick and clocks in at 2.8 pounds, which is thin enough and light enough, though not on the level of its enclosed competitors. The MacBook Neo weighs about the same at 2.7 pounds, but it’s covered in aluminum and it’s 0.5 inches thick. The XPS 13 with Wildcat Lake is much lighter at 2.2 pounds, thinner at 0.5 inches, and also finished with aluminum.

Considering the bulk of modularity, the fact that Framework managed to get the weight and thickness of the Laptop 12 close to closed-door competitors is remarkable. However, the fact remains that you’re often paying a premium with the Framework Laptop 12 compared to the Neo and XPS 13 and, in both cases, getting a laptop that feels less like a premium ultrabook out of the box.

Although the Framework Laptop 12 isn’t finished in aluminum, it still has a metal structure. On top is plastic, which is then coated with thermoplastic polyurethane to absorb impacts. That leads to a plastic feeling externally, though with a smooth, slightly grippy surface that feels good in the hands.

Framework offers an optional backlight on the keyboard (our review unit didn’t have one), as well as four module slots for expansion ports. The back two support Thunderbolt 4 and DisplayPort Alt mode, and all four support USB 3.2 Gen 2 speeds and USB-PD. A 3.5mm headphone jack is standard on the Framework Laptop 12, regardless of the additional modules you choose.

Specifications

Productivity Performance

This isn’t our first outing with Intel’s Wildcat Lake, so we went into this review with a good idea about what to expect from the Framework Laptop 12’s performance. Our test machine came with the highest-end chip Framework offers in this laptop, which is the Core 7 350. It’s a 6-core / 6-thread CPU with a maximum turbo clock of 4.8 GHz, and it can operate between 15W and 35W.

If you’re unfamiliar, Wildcat Lake is the younger, weaker sibling of Panther Lake. It uses Intel’s cutting-edge 18A node but with several cut corners. For starters, the 350 comes with just two faster P-cores (the remaining four are an LPE cluster). It also comes with just 6MB of last-level cache, half of what you get with Panther Lake.

The cores matter less here than the memory, however. Wildcat Lake exclusively uses single-channel DDR5 or LPDDR5X, regardless of capacity (support goes up to 64GB). In practice, that often means you need to overbudget your capacity, at least compared to something like the MacBook Neo with unified memory. Performance drops at 8GB with Wildcat Lake (see our Dell XPS 13 review).

The Core 7 350 comes in behind in single- and multi-core performance in Geekbench 6 compared to the A18 in the MacBook Neo (though multi-core to a much lesser extent). Compared to the 6-core Core 5 320 in the XPS 13, the Framework Laptop 12 is in lockstep with multi-core speed, and just shy of 5% ahead in single-core speed.

Compared to full-fat Panther Lake in the Framework 13 Pro, Wildcat Lake actually looks better than expected. The 13 Pro here is for context, not as a true comparison point; it costs a few thousand dollars. What’s interesting in Geekbench is how the X7 358H in the Framework 13 Pro scales, relative to the Core 7 350.

The X7 358H is a 16-core chip with a 4.8 GHz boost and access to up to 80W of total power (though much of that is allocated to the 12-Xe3-core GPU). Despite more than doubling total core count, and offering a doubling of P-cores, we’re not seeing twice the performance. And, even with access to less power, the Core 7 350 is within 5% of Panther Lake’s single-core performance.

With Geekbench, Apple silicon tends to perform especially well, particularly in single-core tasks, so keep that in mind.

Even with a bit of extra clock speed, however, the Framework Laptop 12 with the Core 7 350 came in behind the Core 5 320 in the XPS 13 in Handbrake. Here, the Geekbench swing toward Apple levels out; the A18 was 8% ahead in Geekbench 6 multi-core, but it’s less than 3% ahead here in Handbrake.

The Panther Lake-based 13 Pro gives some much-needed context, showing compounding factors between higher core counts, higher power limits, and true dual-channel memory. Again, it’s a far more expensive laptop, and the Framework Laptop 12 performs in line with our expectations for laptops in this class.

Perhaps the biggest takeaway is how similar the Core 5 320 is, at least in this laptop. You get an extra 200 MHz on the CPU and 100 MHz on the GPU with the Core 7 350, which isn’t moving the needle a ton here given how limited Wildcat Lake is as a platform. That’s good news, as the Core 5 320 will save you $220 in the Framework Laptop 12 compared to the Core 7 350.

Unfortunately, many of our gaming tests for laptops won’t run on Linux, and given that devices are often shipped back, we can’t go back and retest a dozen devices. That’s not too important here, though. The Core 7 350 has just two Xe3 cores, as do other Wildcat Lake chips, which doesn’t provide enough horsepower to power most titles.

We were able to achieve 30 FPS in Civilization VI at 1080p, which underscores the limitations of the integrated graphics. Intel’s dual-core Xe3 is plenty capable of running Balatro, Vampire Survivors, or whatever 2D sidescroller is currently popping off on Steam. Otherwise, it’s there to give you a display output.

Display

The display is what separates the Framework Laptop 12 from the various other Wildcat Lake-based devices we’ve seen in the wake of the MacBook Neo, and not for the better. Color performance, especially, is weak in our testing, and although peak brightness is in line with similar laptops, the 60Hz refresh rate is a severe downgrade compared to other devices, as is the 1080p resolution.

For metrics, you can see the display peaked at 451 nits, right in line with the MacBook Neo and Framework 13 (non-Pro). However, gamut coverage is poor, with just 64.9% of the sRGB gamut measured, compared to wide-gamut coverage on the competing machines. This is a “budget” laptop, but it’ll easily run over $1,000 with most configurations, and the display is not worthy of that price.

The XPS 13 provides some important context. It doesn’t get as bright — though, it’s hard to split hairs over 50 nits — but it comes with a 120Hz refresh, a higher 2.5K resolution, and it’s a touchscreen like the Framework Laptop 12. That gap in display performance would be understandable with a big gap in price, but that’s not the case. In fact, the Framework Laptop 12 clocks in at $1,271 with a Core 5 320, 16GB of memory, and 500GB of storage. The XPS 13, meanwhile, is $1,000 for that configuration.

Framework naturally needs to cut corners at this price, and it needs to engineer its devices to be repairable and upgradable. So, it’s hard holding the Framework Laptop 12 to the standard of a device like the XPS 13 that doesn’t come with those serviceability upsides. Still, the display is a consistent reminder that this is a budget laptop, whereas with the XPS 13 and MacBook Neo, it’s easy to forget that when doing day-to-day web and office task, due to the premium screens and build quality.

Keyboard and Touchpad

The Framework Laptop 12 comes with a standard keyboard/touchpad combo unit, which is available in several different layouts. There’s currently just a gray and lavender option for the keyboard unit, though presumably Framework will expand its offerings to cover the other colors available on the Framework Laptop 12 (at least with an American English layout).

I achieve 85 WPM with 99% accuracy in a MonkeyType test, compared to 92 WPM at 97% accuracy on my desktop (using the keyboard I type on every day). The keys have standard 19mm spacing and generous 1.5mm of key travel, which makes it comfortable to type on, even considering the small footprint of the Framework Laptop 12.

The touchpad is naturally small given the size of this device, and it’s mechanical, leading to sharp dips during presses on the bottom corners and no responsiveness near the top. It’s a serviceable touchpad, what you’d expect to see on this class of device. Just don’t go in expecting to be spoiled with a large glass surface or haptics.

Upgradeability

Framework built its brand on upgradability, so it’s no surprise that the Framework Laptop 12 earns near-perfect marks here. Like other devices, you can ship the Framework Laptop 12 pre-assembled, or as a barebones system that can accept your own M.2 2230 SSD, DDR5 SODIMM, and operating system. Even then, you can swap out the keyboard, display, mainboard, and ports if you choose (though only within the Framework Laptop 12 form factor).

However, the Framework Laptop 12 brings up the important distinction between serviceability and upgradability. The Framework Laptop 12 is the gold standard (among all Framework devices) for serviceability.But the Wildcat Lake chip brings up concerns about upgradability with its single-channel memory interface.

You can upgrade the memory up to a 64GB DDR5-6400 SODIMM, but there’s only one physical memory slot on the board. Wildcat Lake exclusively uses single-channel memory; it’s not simply a single-channel configuration for a budget price point. You can upgrade to more capacity down the line, but you can’t simply add in a second SODIMM to double your RAM.

You won’t find a more serviceable laptop on the market (outside of the other options from Framework) than the Framework 12, but you primarily have two narrow upgrade paths: more storage and more memory capacity, but not a true dual-channel configuration. Hopefully Framework will continue this line in the future, allowing you to swap the mainboard.

On the serviceable end, however, Framework makes things simple. You get a matching Torx screwdriver with the laptop that can detach the bottom cover. The cover has eight captive screws, so you don’t need to worry about losing them, and it’s primarily there to keep everything together; you actually service the laptop from the top, under the keyboard.

Considering you’re meant to go inside the laptop, Framework has everything clearly labeled, along with QR codes that link to repair guides for various components. With our barebones kit of modules, the laptop was powered on and assembled within five minutes, and this is my first time ever assembling a Framework device from scratch.

Battery Life

Our typical laptop battery tests are based on Windows, and we can’t replicate the testing process on Linux. Framework assured us that Fedora 44 offers the best experience out of the box, so that is what we tested. Instead of a direct comparison, we designed a basic web browsing test loop to see how long the 50WHr battery would hold up away from a charger.

About 9 hours is the answer, with a 9:16 average across three runs. We ran the laptop through a series of live websites with the screen set to 150 nits, Wi-Fi on, and Bluetooth disabled for the test. Again, we can’t make direct comparisons with Windows laptops, but getting around a full day of work is solid for the small 50Whr battery. And with USB-C charging, you can pretty easily top off with a portable GaN brick.

Audio

The stereo 2W speakers inside the Framework Laptop 12 are surprisingly powerful, considering the size of the machine, though the quality of the speakers and dual internal microphones is a clear cut corner to reach the more affordable price of the device. Thankfully, there’s a 3.5mm headphone jack built in (it doesn’t take a module slot), along with Bluetooth 6.0 support for wireless headphones.

The microphone poses a larger issue than the speakers. It’s heavily compressed, which helps make your voice come through clearly, though at the cost of heavy background noise (including keyboard and trackpad noise). You’ll want to use something like EasyEffects in Linux to clean up the microphone audio.

As for the speakers, they’re not as bad as they could be. As mentioned, they’re loud considering the size of the device, and they didn’t distort at full volume. They’re tuned for this type of device, as well. Rather than overemphasizing the highs or pumping too much low-end and exposing distortion, the speakers in the Framework Laptop 12 have a heavy emphasis on the upper midrange.

This range, somewhere between 500Hz and 4kHz, is typically described as “boxy,” and that emphasis works well for the small drivers in the Framework Laptop 12. It implies a low end that the drivers aren’t actually capable of producing. Further, the higher-end of this range, around 1kHz to 2kHz, is where many human voices fall, with sharp consonants pushing higher-end harmonics that come off as harsh. Again, the emphasis helps, allowing voices to come through clearly, without sounding tinny.

Heat

The Framework Laptop 12 stays fairly cool, even under load. The hottest point we measured on the laptop was the underside, directly in the middle, which peaked at 101 degrees Fahrenheit (about 38 degrees Celsius). Under normal usage in a browser with a handful of tabs open, there’s very little noticeable heat, even at this hottest point.

Up where your hands are, we measured 94 degrees Fahrenheit (about 34 degrees Celsius) between the G and H keys on the keyboard, and 86 degrees Fahrenheit (30 degrees Celsius) on the touchpad. That’s warm for your hands, but again, the heat only crops up during heavy load.

Webcam

It’s unsurprising for a laptop at the price of the Framework Laptop 12, but the webcam quality is poor. The camera oddly uses a 4:3 aspect ratio, and the 2MP sensor creates an image more reminiscent of a watercolor than a sharp, Full-HD picture. It struggles with low-light especially, with even moderate shadows in an otherwise brightly-lit room showing visible noise.

The image above was taken in my office in the middle of the day. A window behind me was fully open, about three and a half feet away, and I have a lamp serving somewhat as a key light about three feet off-screen to my left. I’m on the second floor of a two-story house, on a hill without any trees obstructing sunlight (and it was a sunny day). There was a generous amount of natural light in the room.

Yet, you’d think I was sitting in near darkness from the webcam image. The stark brightness from the window darkens my face, filling it with visible noise, as the camera struggles to handle the dynamic range. Sitting in front of an unobstructed window during the middle of the day is the time and place where you’re likely to have the webcam turned on, and it fails that test.

Software and Warranty

Framework offers a standard one-year limited warranty on the Framework Laptop 12, with an optional three-year warranty available for $89 extra. You can read over Framework’s limited warranty, but the limitations are fairly straightforward. Normal wear and tear, damage due to negligence or misuse, and use of third-party parts (or first-party parts from third-party sources) will void the warranty.

Broad warranty protection isn’t as important here as it is elsewhere, however. If, for example, your USB-C port stops working, you can just buy another one rather than going through the RMA process and potentially paying for a repair on the other side (even if you’re under warranty).

You’re free to bring your own OS, but Framework also offers the Framework Laptop 12 with either Windows 11 or Fedora 44 pre-installed. Framework normally uses Ubuntu; however, Fedora 44 has moved to the newer Linux 7.1 kernel, which has optimizations specifically for Wildcat Lake. Using a slower-moving distro like Ubuntu is fine, though you’ll want to make sure to manually upgrade your kernel (and packages) for the best performance if you’re not already using a distro with kernel 7.1 or newer.

Configurations

Framework offers three mainboard configurations: Core 3 204, Core 5 320, or Core 7 350. As we covered in the performance section, the Core 5 320 in the XPS 13 offered largely similar performance to the Core 7 350 in the Framework Laptop 12, so that seems like the sweet spot here. The Core 3 304 is effectively a single-core CPU, with just one P-core alongside a four-core LPE cluster, and it lacks a fingerprint reader, which is available with both other mainboards.

With the DIY edition, Framework ships the laptop without memory, storage, or expansion cards. There’s a single SODIMM slot for memory and a single M.2 2230 slot for the SSD. Framework offers up to 2TB of PCIe 4.0 storage at checkout, as well as up to 48GB DDR5-5600 (again, via a single SODIMM). Framework has USB-C, USB-A, HDMI, Ethernet, 10G Ethernet, DisplayPort, microSD, and SD card modules available, ranging from $10 to $99.

There aren’t any display options aside from the standard 60 Hz 1080p panel in our unit. For the keyboard and trackpad, Framework offers backlit and non-backlit options in various different native layouts.

Framework offers prebuilt versions of the Framework Laptop 12 at a discounted price. The Core 3 304 comes with 8GB of memory ($699), the Core 5 320 comes with 16GB (1,099), and the Core 7 350 comes with 32GB (1,399), and all three configurations use 512GB of storage. All of the configurations come with Framework’s standard expansion card bundle: two USB-C, a USB-A, and an HDMI module.

Dell starts higher with the XPS 13 at $799, but that’s with the Core 5 320 and 8GB of memory. Jumping up to 16GB, the XPS 13 is $999 with the Core 5 320, $100 less than the preconfigured Framework Laptop 12.

Bottom Line

The Framework Laptop 12 is caught between an unprecedented memory and storage shortage and a wave of budget-oriented Windows laptops that skip the repairability angle in favor of better trimmings out of the box. At the same price, it’d be a solid alternative with understandable downsides. The killer for the Laptop 12 is that you’ll likely spend more on it compared to other Wildcat Lake options.

With the Core 5 320, the Framework Laptop 12 is nearly $300 more expensive than the XPS 13, when both are configured with 8GB of memory and 500GB of storage. The Acer Swift Air 14 is $700, and a similarly configured Framework Laptop 12 is $1,074 before adding on the extra cost of a power adapter and modules. For many Wildcat Lake devices, we see prices top out around $1,000; with the Framework Laptop 12, you’ll often spend at least $1,000, assuming you push beyond the Core 3 304.

Modularity comes at a cost, which is more relevant in the case of the Framework Laptop 12 where $100 or $200 makes all the difference in value (it’s less relevant up at the Framework Pro 13, where you expect premium pricing). That extra cost is especially damaging here, when Framework’s competitors are offering better display performance (and more pixels) and all-aluminum bodies for less money.

There are situations where the Framework Laptop 12 is a great option, even compared to the other Wildcat Lake devices on the market. If you already have a SODIMM module you can harvest from other devices, along with an SSD, this is a cheap way to get some of Intel’s latest silicon. But for everyone else, unless you don’t mind paying significantly more for repairability, there are better options available that typically cost less, look better, and feel more premium.

In its latest industry report, TrendForce has projected that global notebook shipments could witness a decline of a low single-digit percentage in 2027. Laptop manufacturers are also expected to reconsider their production strategies as rising costs make manufacturing outside China less attractive. The share of global notebook production outside China is projected to fall from 24% in 2025 to 21% in 2026 and potentially below 20% in 2027.

The biggest concern is expected to be the shift from component availability to weakening consumer demand, as manufacturers continue to tackle high CPU, DRAM, and SSD prices. The firm also added that if component prices continue to remain on the higher side, brands might pass more of these costs on to consumers.

Notebook shipments are expected to benefit from improved CPU availability and manufacturers stocking up on components in 2026. However, TrendForce warns that it does not directly translate into healthy demand. In anticipation of higher prices, certain customers have upgraded their devices earlier than planned. Essentially, fewer people will be looking forward to buying new laptops in 2027.

Additionally, once inventories purchased at lower prices gradually run out, manufacturers will face greater pressure to absorb higher component costs or pass them on to consumers. Increasing the retail price could further weaken demand, while absorbing the additional costs would squeeze profit margins. Manufacturers could also make changes to specifications, including memory capacity, to control production costs, potentially making their products less competitive.

It is estimated that the CPU, DRAM, and SSD account for approximately 68% of the bill of materials (BOM) cost for mainstream notebooks with a $900 manufacturer’s suggested retail price in the third quarter of 2026. TrendForce said manufacturers are unlikely to maintain pricing, specifications, and profitability simultaneously in 2027.

Rising component costs will continue to put pressure on manufacturers. While DRAM supply is likely to remain tight due to AI demand, NAND flash availability could improve in the second half of 2027. TrendForce says the key challenge will be whether consumers can absorb higher laptop prices. If manufacturers manage to limit price increases by adjusting specifications and absorbing some costs, shipments could decline by a small percentage in 2027. However, if higher costs are passed on to consumers, the decline could reach the high-single-digit range.

YouTube hardcore PC modder TrashBench attached waterblocks, a water pump, and a 360mm radiator to a Metabox laptop with an Nvidia GTX 1060 and Intel Core i7-8750H. This Frankenstein’s monster of a laptop dropped a whole 60℃ on both the CPU and GPU during benchmarks and stress tests and gained an average of 14% after overclocking.

TrashBench, a YouTuber popular for extreme PC modifications involving various watercooling solutions, decided to “fix” laptop cooling by taking a cut-up 360mm AIO from another project and plans to use it on the Metabox P950EP. Metabox is an Australian brand of laptops rebranded from Clevo, an ODM brand from Taiwan that often gets rebranded in various countries. TrashBench intends to use this laptop for his daughter to play Fortnite on.

The modder intended to use the stock AIO pump along with a second waterblock for the CPU, but after testing whether it would be strong enough to push through a second block, TrashBench realized he would need a bigger pump. He also needed to use another waterblock since the new pump was a standalone one, unlike the waterblock and pump combo on an AIO.

The waterblocks were mounted via a 3D-printed holder, then screwed down to the existing holes previously used for the stock heatpipe and blower cooler. More 3D-printed mounts were used to hold the radiator behind the screen of the laptop, but couldn’t be screwed in because the space between the screen and shell was too small. TrashBench reluctantly used Loctite 2-part epoxy to attach the radiator mount onto the laptop.

That’s not all epoxy was used for, as he didn’t forget about the RAM and VRMs. A heatsink was attached to them, with thermal pads bringing the RAM level with the VRMs to use a single heatsink for each cluster. The VRMs had a dab of thermal paste and a spot of epoxy to keep the heatsink in place, making the modification permanent.

After fully assembling everything and attaching the blocks, pump, and radiator with flexible clear tubes using screw hose clamps, TrashBench tested it for leaks. “I think we’re good,” he says, just before a few bubbles passed by.

The laptop uses 19v, while the pump and fans use 12v, so a DC-DC step-down converter was soldered to the original blower fan’s electrical contacts. Unfortunately, the power source powers on as soon as the laptop is turned on, with no way to make them only turn on under load. So the modder used a toggle switch mounted to a 3D-printed plate, screwed onto the bottom shell that had a large gaping hole cut out of it to accommodate the pump and waterblocks.

To allow the laptop to stand, a 3D-printed riser was screwed to the bottom and is the final touch to the build. As ridiculous as it looks, it impresses with its performance, averaging 60℃ below stock, with the CPU and GPU staying well below 40℃ under full load.

Conservative but clear performance gains were seen after benchmarks, but with the amount of temperature overhead, TrashBench decided to see how much more he could get by overclocking, and it was worth it, as Forza Horizon 5 went from 75 FPS to 77, and then to 83 FPS after overclocking.

PC shipments globally have dropped by 20.1% year-over-year in the third quarter of 2026, a decline of 15.8 million units. According to research firm IDC Global, this marks a steeper decline compared to the 3.8% year-over-year decrease that the market experienced last quarter. It’s also down 9.1% from the second quarter of this year. Many research firms have been warning about this since late last year, with IDC warning that the PC market could shrink up to 9%, with the budget sector being hit the hardest. Some experts estimate that the situation isn’t expected to improve until 2029, with Tom’s Hardware readers saying that they won’t upgrade their systems in the next two years.

These price increases have been directly caused by the boom in AI data centers, with hyperscalers pouring massive amounts of money into the crucial HBM needed to support AI GPUs. This has led to memory manufacturers pivoting toward this technology, leaving less production capacity for consumer memory. One good example of this is Micron, which killed the Crucial RAM and SSD brand in late 2025 so that it can focus on data center production. As PC makers fight for a shrinking supply of memory chips, we saw memory prices climb by as much as 500%, with 128GB of DDR5 now costing as much as $3,399.

Manufacturers didn’t sit idly by and let the market take its course, though. Many of them stocked up on inventory in the second quarter of 2026 to try and head off the projected higher prices caused by the shortage, which directly led to the reduced shipments being reported. “What we’re seeing is the result of the strong first half pull-in. Vendors and channels loaded up on inventory early in the year to get ahead of price hikes, and that has thrown off the usual seasonality, where Q3 is typically larger than Q2,” said IDC consumer devices research director Jitesh Ubrani. “Channels are now worried about carrying too much inventory into a market where high prices are suppressing demand. That could translate into promotions and some short-term relief for consumers, but we don’t expect pricing anywhere near what it was a year ago. Prices will remain elevated. With macro conditions worsening, the risk is that the outlook for the next few quarters gets worse before it gets better.”

The top three PC vendors suffered the most, with Lenovo shedding 22.6%, HP shipping 30.9% fewer units, and Dell shipments contracting by 25%. On the other hand, Apple’s shipments shrank by 11.3%, while Asus’s numbers fell by 8.6%, with the rest of the market shipping 14% less year-over-year. Despite being hit the hardest, Lenovo, HP, and Dell still maintained their lead at 23.8%, 16.5%, and 12.1% market share, respectively.

Even though other industry leaders, including Micron, say that the situation will not improve for the next few years, Acer CEO Jason Chen went against the grain and said that these fears are just being hyped to protect the margins of memory chip makers. He estimated that PC prices will decline by the latter half of 2027 as Chinese memory chip capacity comes online, with only high-end parts like LPDDR5X-9600 and niche CPUs such as the Nvidia N1 and N1X remaining in short supply.

At an event in San Francisco, Microsoft and Nvidia teamed up to show off the RTX Spark chip, along with the Surface Laptop Ultra and new features in Windows 11 that use the new system-on-a-chip's capabilities. The device, along with the Surface RTX Spark Dev Box and the broader Spark ecosystem is available for pre-order today, with devices shipping on October 16. You can see our full breakdown of retailers and listings in our dedicated pre-order coverage here.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, and Windows and Devices head Pavan Davuluri took turns on stage.

"We've reinvented the personal computer completely," Huang said.

Nadella described the event as one that would be building the "frontier ecosystem," anchoring it in Agent 365, Microsoft IQ, and Copilot. Davuluri describes Windows 11 as being the most secure platform for AI agents, highlighting containment for agents.

Windows 11 and Surface Laptop Ultra

The Surface Laptop Ultra will start at $2,599, while the Surface RTX Spark Dev Box will begin at $5,999. Both are available for pre-order. They, along with PCs from Asus, Dell, Lenovo, HP, and MSI will ship next Friday, Oct. 16.

Davuluri showed the Surface Laptop Ultra running Github Copilot and playing Gears of War: E-Day at 60 frames per second. He said that "hundreds" of AAA titles and indies will be available day one, and that Call of Duty will come to RTX Spark in 2027.

The 4.5-pound system has the brightest peak HDR on a laptop, he said. The system also features a magnetic USB-C charger it calls "magnetic connect." The connector plugs in, similar to Apple's MagSafe or the old Surface Connect ports, except using a standardized port.

An impressive video demo using multiple local and cloud models across Blender, Photoshop, ComfyUI, and Unreal Engine to make a workload that took hours instead of days was impressive, but also highly produced.

Microsoft compared the Spark to the M5 Pro in a MacBook Pro, promising performance up to 2.1 times faster to first token, 4.3 times faster image generation, and 6.2 times faster video generation.

On Windows 11, there will be new quick actions in the Search menu in the Task Bar, making quick changes to settings, taking screenshots, or arranging windows using natural language. The Taskbar will also launch Copilot if the request calls for it, and you can jump from Search to Copilot.

Davuluri also described local models running from other vendors, including Hermes, OpenClaw, and Perplexity, performing a demo with Perplexity Computer. He also stated that Meta's Muse will come to Windows. There will be a new setup for Windows AI agents to make them easier to configure.

Davaluri also announced DGX Spark and Station for Windows, a "supercomputer" to bring "last quarter's frontier to your desktop." He showed off desktops from HP and Dell that will come "later this year." Up to this point, both have been exclusive for Linux.

Copilot and Local Agents

Microsoft's Jacob Andreou detailed the recent launch of the new Copilot, which is now getting access to local files, local models, and the ability to take actions on account of the user. It will still use cloud models, but will switch to local models when privacy is called for.

In one example, Andreou was grabbing tax data for his accountant. The system used a mix of local and cloud models to search for documents, rename them, and zip them into a folder. Copilot also wrote an email to the accountant to send on his behalf, which he approved. These features, he said, are coming over the next few months.

Containers, Trust, and Hybrid Ingelligence

Daviluri focused on the technical details of agents, including Microsoft Execution Containers, which is moving to general availability. These are sandboxes that are integrated with the OS to decide what data is shared with agents.

Windows will also require agents to attribute their actions to themselves. There will be IT actions for enterprises that want to set agentic rules once and use them across their fleet of devices.

Microsoft's Divya Venkataramu demonstrated this system, showing how she had access to documents even when agents didn't.

Davuluri also described hybrid intelligence, a mix of agents running locally and in the cloud to reduce token budgets. Microsoft's HydraFusion, which balances local and cloud agents, is coming from GitHub to Windows on October 15 for GitHub Copilot, the CLI, and VS Code, and will use new models like MAI Code 1.1 Flash and Nvidia's Nemotron. Using advanced quantization, DeepSeek V4 Flash can be used at 1.6 bits to run locally at 60GB of memory, he said.

Windows ML will serve as the runtime to deploy models across GPU, NPU, and CPU. Llama.cpp will come to Windows ML to give developers chances to experiment with new models at launch.

Microsoft's Kayla Cinnamon demonstrated Hybrid intelligence on a Surface RTX Dev Box by prompting GitHub Copilot to detect unused codes, packages, and feature flags to clean up code. With an Efficiency mode, Copilot selects a model automatically based on how complex a task is. A more complex prompt used GPT-6 Luna, while separate sub-agents ran locally.

Businesses continue to refresh laptops more frequently, with the average laptop refresh cycle falling to four years in 2025, according to Sage.

And while Black Friday is typically a shopping window associated with consumer tech, it’s also a great time for businesses to snap up a good deal to upgrade their business laptops.

TL;DR

• Black Friday deals promise big cost savings, but if you pick the wrong devices you may end up with a product ill-suited to your needs
• Knowing what you want and need from a laptop before buying is key to getting a good deal, even on Black Friday
• The Dell Pro 3 and Dell Pro 5 offer a strong mix of performance and connectivity, with excellent displays, long battery life, and strong security credentials
• With laptops catering to lightweight workloads and more demanding tasks, the Dell Pro lineup is well suited to a range of business needs and sizes

As tempting as the cheapest models are, they rarely offer the best long-term value for growing businesses. In fact, Microsoft research shows almost a quarter (24%) of IT decision-makers said choosing cheaper hardware ultimately led to higher long-term costs through breakdowns and inefficiencies.

For small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) concerned about making the right laptop decision, there are several key considerations:

• Performance needs: Choose devices that can handle the unique workloads of you and your employees.
• Battery life: Choose laptops that provide employees with juice to last a full working day, whether traveling, in meetings, or off-site.
• Security features: SMBs are just as vulnerable as large enterprises. Protect company data and employee credentials with built-in security.
• Ports selection: Make it easy for employees to connect monitors, peripherals, or other everyday equipment.
• Display: Choose a display that suits your team’s unique needs, from everyday office tasks to creative work, and data analysis to customer presentations.
• Wireless and cellular connectivity: Give your people reliable ways to stay connected in the office, at home, or while traveling.

Dell Pro 3 and Dell Pro 5 laptops bring together the performance, battery life, security, connectivity, and display options businesses need to support their teams.

What CPU and memory does your business need?

The CPU and memory are two of the most important components of any professional laptop, but the right ones for your business depend on the kind of work you're going to do with them. Both the Dell Pro 3 and Dell Pro 5 are available with Series 3 Intel® Core™ Ultra and AMD Ryzen™ AI PRO 400 Series CPUs, making them excellent for multitasking, even on the more affordable Pro 3.

For everyday tasks like email, web browsing, and office apps, a Dell Pro 3 configured with standard DDR5 memory is plenty. But for more demanding video editing, 3D design work, or heavy multitasking, the Dell Pro 5's optional expandable LPCAMM2 memory, with configurations up to 64GB, can give you a real boost.

How do you choose the right display?

For standard office work, the default non-touch, WUXGA LCD panels on Dell Pro 3 and Dell Pro 5 laptops are ideal. They offer a bright and responsive display, along with smart technologies that help preserve battery life. Optional built-in privacy panels on select Dell Pro 5 configurations help maintain organizational security and personal privacy too, enabling secure, flexible working conditions without the need for additional accessories.

If you're planning some color-intensive or creative work, the Dell Pro 5 also comes with high-definition display options, including WUXGA OLED panels that can help reduce eye strain and offer an accurate image of whatever photos or video you're working with, ideal for creatives.

Dell Pro 3 vs Dell Pro 5 at a glance

What laptop requirements do SMBs need for working on the go?

The two key features you need to consider when you're away from the office are battery life and portability. Both the Dell Pro 3 and Dell Pro 5 range feature some of Dell’s longest-lasting batteries yet, with the Dell Pro 5, specifically, able to last well over 22 hours on a single charge for mixed-use workloads.*

The Dell Pro 3 and Dell Pro 5 are built with mobility in mind, offering a lightweight design that's easy to carry between meetings, client sites, or home working setups.

When comparing configurations, consider:

• Battery life that can cover a full working day
• Weight and portability for commuting, meetings and client visits
• Fast charging for quick top-ups when necessary
• Cellular connectivity for working away from reliable Wi-Fi
• A durable design that can cope with long-term use

How secure are the Dell Pro 3 and Dell Pro 5 laptops?

Dell Pro 3 and Dell Pro 5 laptops feature a range of security features to keep company data safe, and the devices themselves secure from tampering. Quantum-resistant BIOS and TPM 2.0 support keep your workers protected against contemporary malware and theoretical future attack vectors, while the Dell Pro 5 additionally offers Dell SafeID with ControlVault3+ for added protection of passwords, biometric login data, and security codes.

What ports and connectors are the most important?

USB-A and USB-C ports are the most useful, everyday ports you’ll need providing support for legacy peripherals, high-speed data transfers, and device charging. Dell Pro 3 and Dell Pro 5 laptops come with a range of USB ports of both types, ensuring you have plenty of I/O for various accessories and adapters.

For external displays, HDMI 2.1 ports offer support for up to 4K resolution at 60Hz, while RJ45 Ethernet at Gigabit speeds delivers easy connectivity options for business networks.

What about webcams?

Both the Dell Pro 3 and Dell Pro 5 feature high-definition webcams, with the Dell Pro 3 offering up to an FHD (1080p) HDR camera and the Dell Pro 5 providing an upgraded option up to an 8MP (1440p) RGB HDR camera. High-quality video paired with optimized audio can help deliver a professional presence in virtual meetings, ensuring crisp, clear sound for all participants—even when sharing a single laptop.

Do the Dell Pro 3 and Dell Pro 5 keyboards have backlighting?

Yes, both the Dell Pro 3 and Dell Pro 5 laptops feature a backlit keyboard, which makes it much easier to work late into the evening or in dimmer environments.

Can you connect without Wi-Fi?

When you're away from a secure Wi-Fi network, select Dell Pro 3 and Dell Pro 5 configurations can keep employees connected with optional WWAN capability, including 5G, for high-speed internet access wherever they go. Availability varies by configuration and region.

If you think Dell laptops are the right call for your business, find out more on the Dell website: US readers click here.

* Based on testing using the Mobile Mark 30 battery life benchmark comparing Dell Pro 5 14 and Dell Pro 14 Plus, April 2026. Dell Pro 5 14 was tested with Intel® 336H vPro® CPU, UMA graphics, 32GB LPCAMM2 memory, WUXGA Non-Touch OLED display (dark mode) and 70 Whr battery. Dell Pro 14 Plus was tested with Intel® U5 236V vPro® CPU, UMA graphics, 16GB LPDDR5x memory, WUXGA Non-touch Super Low Power display, and 55Whr battery. For more information about this benchmark test, visit www.bapco.com. Actual battery life may be significantly less than the test results and varies depending on product configuration and use, software, usage, operating conditions, power management settings and other factors. Maximum battery life will decrease with time. The stated Watt-hour (Whr) is not an indication of battery life.

Google introduced five new laptops recently, which went on sale Sunday. The Googlebooks are intended to run Android apps natively; however, Google admitted in a statement to Android Authority that not all apps may perform as well on the systems with Intel processors as those with Qualcomm chips.

"The vast majority of Android apps run smoothly across both Intel and Qualcomm Googlebooks right out of the box," Google told the Android-focused site. "Because many Android apps were originally designed for Arm chips, a small handful of complex apps or games need some developer tuning to run their best on Intel-based platforms. We’re working hand-in-hand with app developers, Intel, and Qualcomm to continuously optimize performance and expand compatibility across the entire portfolio."

Google has not named specific apps that might have issues on Intel-based systems. None of these claims were made prior to Googlebooks being made available on store shelves.

The Googlebooks with Intel processors are the Asus Googlebook 14, Lenovo Googlebook 15, and Acer Googlebook 14. The Dell XPS Googlebook and HP Googlebook 14 use Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Elite chips.

Most Android apps will work on Intel Googlebooks due to the wide use of Kotlin for Android development, and many apps have been made using Java. If an app's pipeline is mostly Java/Kotlin, it will have a high chance of working on the Intel Googlebook thanks to their architecture-agnostic libraries and SDKs.

However, there are still apps out there relying on native components compiled exclusively for ARM64 with no x86-64 versions. Intel Bridge and Android’s Native Bridge can translate ARM64 code for x86 compatibility, but unless the developer actually accounts for x86, it might run into some issues.

All of the applications on Googlebookx will come from Google's Play Store, which will include a mix of optimized and unoptimized apps. You can't download applications from the web unless you're redirected to Google Play.

Google wants to compete with the Mac by offering a full Android ecosystem experience from phone to laptop, similar to the conveniences Apple offers between their laptops and phones. With prices ranging from $899-1,299, it is a fairly large jump from the MacBook Neo’s $699-799; however, the Googlebook offers more RAM, giving you either 16GB or 32GB options. Storage remains limited, only offering either 256GB or 512GB, but each Googlebook comes with 12 months of Google AI Pro that includes 5TB of cloud storage currently valued at $249.99.

HP is the latest to announce a MacBook Neo competitor before the holidays. Its OmniBook 5, starting at $699.99, will use Intel's Wildcat Lake chips and come in a series of colors. What stands out is HP's choice of OLED screens for every model.

Like Apple's Neo and Dell's upcoming 14S, HP is offering four colors: peony pink, starlit blue, smoke silver, and soft honeydew.

HP is following steps we've seen from Lenovo, which recently announced its colorful IdeaPad Vibe lineup; Dell's XPS 13 and forthcoming 14S; and Acer's Swift Air 14.

The company is promising up to 42 hours of battery life, with the catch that that's measured with local video playback. At 2.56 pounds, it's lighter than the 14S, which measures 2.65 pounds, and the Acer Swift Air 14, which measures 2.62 pounds. The MacBook Neo and Dell XPS 13 are both lighter, but have smaller 13-inch screens.

Starting with an Intel Core 5 320, 8GB of RAM, and 256GB of storage, the system is familiar to others on paper. It's the 1920 x 1200 OLED touchscreen that stands out. The system will start at $699.99.

But that OLED screen does have one catch: the two 1920 x 1200 models at launch will each be rated for 300 nits, which is fairly dim for OLED, which benefits quite a bit from brightness.

Some configurations have clearly been affected by the ongoing component crisis. While 8 and 16GB RAM configurations will be available at launch, a 12GB option is set for November. The same goes for the top-end 1TB storage option. Lastly, the highest-end OLED panel, a 2560 x 1600 touchscreen rated for 620 nits, won't be shipping until March of next year.

The announcement of Google's new Googlebook laptops raised questions: what happens to the Chromebooks that many, especially students, know well? Google says it will be phasing out ChromeOS updates in mid-2034. That date matches plans previously described in court records, but it is now official.

In a support document for Chrome IT administrators in the enterprise and education space, the company explained that "many of our newest Chromebook devices will be eligible to transition over to Googlebook OS," but it hasn't listed models or described how upgrades will take place.

Chromebooks have 10-year support lifecycles. If you have a Chromebook with a cycle that extends beyond 2034, Google is telling education and enterprise managers that "Google is committed to supporting your transition to Googlebook OS, with many devices offering direct migration paths."

Googlebooks will support the same 10-year update and security patch system as Chromebooks, though it starts from the launch of the CPU inside the system.

The document also reveals that management capabilities for Googlebooks will come in the back half of 2027, suggesting that it also may be a while until we see the first enterprise Googlebooks. Chrome Education and Enterprise upgrade licenses are different from Googlebooks. If IT admins update Chromebooks to Googlebook OS or buy new machines, they will be on new licenses. Google has not yet announced those terms.

Googlebook OS appears much more like Android than Chrome OS, though we're still waiting for time with a device. In the support document, Google says it is "commited" to web developers despite support for Android apps. "[W]e will continue to support the manageability of web apps for IT admins and a robust set of APIs for web developers," it says.

Googlebooks are available for pre-order now and will launch on October 4.

The maker of XMG gaming laptops and Schenker workstations said the prices for DDR5 SO-DIMMs have increased sixfold since July 2025, and it believes RAM will be in short supply through 2027 and beyond. The company said this in the r/XMG_gg subreddit, where the company also announced a price increase of $113 (€100) and $228 (€200) for most of its gaming laptop models, plus a massive $342 (€300) hike for one professional laptop.

This dramatic DDR5 SO-DIMM price jump tracks closely with desktop RAM, which experienced a similar 500% climb in the past 12 months. But what’s also concerning is that other components have increased in cost, too. Aside from RAM and SSDs, XMG noted that PCBs, electronic components, CPUs, graphics cards, and video memory are also facing similar cost pressures, resulting in higher costs. The war in the Middle East has compounded the situation, especially as increased oil and fuel prices are making air freight costs higher, while also increasing insurance premiums for sea cargo traveling from Asia to Europe via the Red Sea and the Suez Canal.

Because of this, the company says it was forced to increase the prices of several of its models. It also reminded customers that its margins are fixed and that the resulting hikes are solely driven by higher upstream costs. A company representative also said, “If relevant input prices fall again, we will reflect this in our retail prices as well — just as we have done in the past.” This is similar to Framework’s pricing strategy, where it recently cut the memory prices for the Laptop 13 Pro after it was able to find another source for cheaper LPCAMM2

The post also gave a bearish outlook on the memory situation, echoing Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra’s words that the DRAM shortages will go well into 2027. This contrasts with Asus CEO Jason Chen’s prediction that component prices will start reversing in the latter half of 2027, and that the long-term predictions of high memory costs are just chip makers wanting to retain high gross margins for as long as possible. Chen said that Chinese memory makers increasing their production would help ease the shortage and that price increases are reportedly cooling as consumers refuse to pay more. Unfortunately, we have no way of knowing which of these two perspectives is correct, and we can only wait and see what happens with memory prices over the next 12 months.

Taiwan-based manufacturer Durabook has introduced a highly rugged mobile workstation with not one, not two, but three integrated 14-inch 1080p displays. The Z14I-DX3 comes in a traditional clamshell design with two additional displays attached on either side that fold inwards during transportation. The laptop is MIL-STD-810H and MIL-STD-461G certified and is primarily meant for field professionals including military, public safety and emergency services, engineers, and other industrial operations.

All three displays are DynaVue sunlight-readable touchscreens with capacitive multi-touch and built-in OSD controls. Offering up to 1200 nits of peak brightness, all three can be synchronized or adjusted individually. The displays also support finger, water, glove and stylus inputs, which can be useful depending on the working conditions.

The additional displays increase the overall weight of the machine to a whopping 21.6 lb or 9.8 kgs, significantly heavier than the standard single-screen model at 3.6 kg. And at 5.4" thick (137.5mm) when closed, this system is best understood as a luggable workstation rather than anything resembling a traditional laptop.

The notebook can be configured with Intel’s Meteor Lake Core Ultra 5 or Core Ultra 7 mobile processors with up to 64GB of DDR5-5600 memory. Unusually for a ruggedized system, Durabook also offers several Nvidia discrete GPUs including the RTX A500 AI accelerator, RTX 3500 Ada and RTX 5000 Ada for up to 682 TOPS of AI performance.

The Durabook Z14I-DX3 also offers support for a wide range of connectivity options including Thunderbolt 4, dual RJ-45 Ethernet, two RS-232 serial ports, ExpressCard 54, Nano SIM and eSIM, as well as USB options ranging from USB 3.2 Gen 2 to USB 2.0. Wireless connectivity options include Intel Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4, along with optional dedicated GPS, 4G LTE, and 5G connectivity. Durabook touts the use of this connectivity for highly customized application-specific configurations like the addition of joysticks for drone controls.

Given its likely customers, the Z14I-DX3 has several multi-factor authentication options, such as a smart card reader, optional Windows Hello webcam, RFID/NFC reader, and fingerprint scanner. The system also comes with quick-release dual NVMe PCIe SSD drives, allowing users to swap storage drives without requiring any tools. While the main battery is a 6,900mAh unit, the company lists an optional secondary 4,700mAh battery and a 6,700mAh battery for the two additional screens.

There is no information regarding the price, however, customers interested in the rugged mobile workstation can visit Durabook’s official website for a quote.

After a brief tease back in May, Google is detailing its lineup of Googlebooks, its new line of laptops designed to serve as premium systems that work best with Android phones and deliver unique abilities through Gemini.

At an event ahead of the launch, Sameer Samat, Google's president of the Android ecosystem, said that the device's new OS would pull from the best aspects of ChromeOS and Android to design a modern

The systems are available for pre-order today and will land in stores on October 4 in the U.S. and October 5 in Canada, the U.K., Ireland, France, Germany, and Australia.

Googlebook hardware

The first five Googlebooks come from five partners: Dell, Lenovo, HP, Asus, and Acer, and offer silicon from either Intel or Qualcomm. MediaTek is also listed as a partner, but its chips aren't in the first wave of devices.

These devices are clearly designed to go after the MacBook Air and premium Windows laptops, using materials like aluminum, magnesium, and carbon fiber rather than plastic. The screens are all high-resolution, with several 2880 x 1800 OLED screens. Most of the lineup has haptic touchpads.

Google has set a floor of 16GB for RAM, with several of the options offering up to 32GB. 256GB is the minimum for storage, though many go up to 512GB, and Dell and HP go up to 1TB.

All of them also feature a Glowbar (a throwback to the Chromebook Pixel and Pixel C tablet), a series of RGB lights on the lid that glows playfully at startup, shows battery charge, and can react when you talk to Gemini. Given that the Glowobar is behind the screen, we'll see how much use it gets, but Google says it's going to open an API for developers.

Several of the new laptops are reminiscent of existing Windows machines. The HP Googlebook 14 resembles the HP OmniBook Ultra, while the Dell's XPS Googlebook is effectively this year's XPS 13. The Asus Googlebook 14 is a dead ringer for the premium, enterprise-focused ExpertBook Ultra.

And yet some of those familiar looks were my favorites on first impression. I particularly appreciated how thin and light both Asus and Dell's designs are, though Asus' has far more ports. With the exception of Acer's 2-in-1, the entire lineup consists of clamshell designs.

The laptops aren't cheap, particularly if you're used to the lower end of Chromebooks. The cheapest notebook, the Acer Chromebook 14, starts at $899, though the notebook maker says it's a limited-time price. The XPS starts at $1,199, while the rest all start at $1,299, the price of a base MacBook Air.

Google's keyboard layout brings back the caps lock key (which also doubles as the Quick Insert key, see below), and also adds a G key that brings up the launcher.

Meet the Googlebooks

*️⃣ Acer Googlebook 14

*️⃣ Dell XPS Googlebook

*️⃣ Asus Googlebook 14

*️⃣ Lenovo Googlebook 15

*️⃣ HP Googlebook 14

Googlebook OS

The Googlebook OS is designed to be tightly integrated with your existing Android phone. The idea is that once you log in and set up the laptop for the first time, you'll find all of your files, photos, apps, emails, and saved passwords right where you would expect them, with changes flowing back to your phone. The whole idea seems very Mac-like, but for Android, which never had that same tight integration with Microsoft's Windows, despite multiple attempts.

In general, this seems like a simple but mostly full-featured desktop OS for the crowd growing out of Chromebooks. Much of the work still occurs in your browser (in this case, Chrome), but there's a full file manager (including AI descriptions of files) to open files locally. You can put phone-style widgets on your desktop, and there's a taskbar at the bottom of the screen.

The applications, however, all come from the Android side of things. Google provides apps through the Play Store. Google is counting on a mix of the Play Store and web apps, meaning you won't be downloading any executables to use on a Googlebook from the web. Google claims that 70% of time on a laptop is spent in a web browser.

The company is highlighting Adobe's Photoshop and Lightroom, CapCut, Netflix, and Disney+ (with offline viewing). Those apps, among others, will have a desktop mode. Additionally, Google says that half of the 100 top games on Android are "already optimized for keyboard, mouse, and large screen, with new games launching monthly."

That latter point is quite PC gaming, though. For that, Google is offering a free year of Nvidia GeForce Now, and suggests more gaming will come to Googlebooks soon enough. (Gaming Chromebooks didn't quite take off, so we'll see what Google does differently here).

There are a handful of features to move back and forth between your laptop and your phone that seem helpful (and again, quite similar to macOS). Continue On is effectively macOS and iOS's Continuity, which lets you pick up on a task from your phone on your laptop, and vice versa. The application for the file you're working on shows up in a Googlebook's taskbar. For when you want to use your phone directly on the laptop, Cast My Apps lets you control it from the desktop (similar to macOS's iPhone Mirroring)

Google also includes Antigravity, its platform for developing agentic workflows and agents to build web apps or Android software on your device. At an event ahead of the show, Googlers were vibe coding software to put on their machines, from a teleprompter Android app to an arcade full of '80s arcade games. Google says Antigravity will also include a Linux terminal environment to run tools like Claude CLI or Antigravity CLI.

Google promises 10 years of support for Googlebook OS on a Googlebook, though at a press event, there was a big asterisk next to that claim. The 10 years starts from the launch of the platform and chip inside the Googlebook, I was told, which means that Intel's Panther Lake chips will have nearly a year lopped off immediately (they launched in January this year), while Snapdragon X Elite, which first shipped in 2024, will already be 2 years behind.

This isn't terribly different from how Google supports its Chromebooks now — by platform, not launch of the system, but that difference may not play the same in the big leagues. Google keeps a database where you can see when any given Chromebook model will stop receiving updates, and presumably it will do something similar with Googlebooks.

Gemini Intelligence

The features that make Googlebooks stand out are the ones where Google baked its Gemini AI directly into the operating system. That also means how much you like a Googlebook may be directly tied to how useful you find these features.

The one feature Google talks up the most is the Magic Pointer. You wiggle your cursor, and it becomes a Gemini-focused pointer. Click on anything to get contextual suggestions or type into the assistant to get answers about what you chose. For example, one demo showed someone using Magic Pointer on a PDF of a calendar and asking Gemini to add the dates to their calendar. In many cases, it felt like a shorter way to get to Gemini than copying and pasting screenshots, but I didn't get enough time to judge how useful it could be.

The Caps Lock key doubles as a "Quick Insert tool" — effectively a souped-up copy and paste that includes your clipboard history, emojis, translation tools, proactive assistant capabilities, and opens Rambler, which allows for text-to-speech and cleans up where you might have stumbled and messed up.

Rambler was introduced at I/O this year and debuted on the Pixel 11, but it was impressive on the Googlebook. I tend to type rather than speak on a computer, but this might convince some people otherwise. It even did well in a relatively loud demonstration environment.

While there are a number of widget options in Googlebook OS, you can also create your own with natural language. I was able to make one that showed me the top movie of the day in a given year.

Perhaps the most natural are Magic Cues — recommendations to do something with the information you're seeing — peppered throughout the OS. If you see dates, you may be cued to make a calendar invite. If someone asks a question in a text message, the answer might pop up if it is in your email, texts, or somewhere else it was discussed before. This has also been on Pixel phones before, but seems to fit in just fine on a laptop.

Beyond the Gemini features, every Googlebook is shipping with 12 months of Google AI Pro (usually $19.99 per month), offering 5TB of cloud storage and advanced tools like higher rate limits in Gemini, entry rate limits to agent models in Antigravity, credits for use in Google Flow, and higher access to AI in Google Search. There are also 3 months of YouTube Premium, CapCut, and Photoshop. Additionally, there's 1 year of Gemini Spark, a version of the AI that acts as an autonomous agent. That's a lot of freebies, and it will be interesting to see how many people feel the need to keep and renew them to make the most of their Googlebooks.

Can Googlebook break through?

Despite Android's popularity globally, Chromebooks have largely been seen as kid stuff — quite literally for education. Googlebooks are a play to be more serious computers, but also bring a premium price.

The AI features are neat in some cases, and showboaty in others. I need to spend real time with a Googlebook to truly decide what's useful.

What is undoubtedly the most important part here is that Android users will have a device that integrates with their phones as well as Macs do with iPhones. Whether that's enough to justify a new operating system that still has some limitations is an open question. Again, we have to try these.

Google clearly has some OEMs excited, but as computers get more expensive thanks to a component shortage, we'll have to see how these prices land, and if the company finally has a mainstream competitor on its hands.

If you don't have the most colorful computer, the fastest computer, or the nicest screen, you can at least have a ton of ports. For Acer's take on the premium $699 laptop, the Swift Air 14, the company doubled down on connectivity and battery life, adding top-of-the-line Thunderbolt 4 ports and up to 16 hours of battery life in our tests.

But battery life and ports alone, while important, don't make a laptop great. Competitors have stronger builds and, in some cases, better performance. Acer's choices are practical, but they might not be what everyone wants.

Design of the Acer Swift Air 14

The Acer Swift 14 feels more premium than I'd expect a $699 laptop to be, especially one from Acer, which is known for making tough decisions to hit certain budgets. The all-aluminum design isn't as solid as the MacBook Neo or Dell XPS 13. That's mostly due to flex in the Acer’s lid and on the keyboard. It feels nice in general, but if you look, you can find the small flaws.

Acer is offering the Swift Air 14 in four colors worldwide, but here in the United States, there's just one: sage green. (In other countries, including Canada, there's also frost blue, blossom pink, and lilac purple.

The lid is mostly plain, with an Acer logo and two silver accent lines. I like the sage color, which is more like an olive in some lights and silver in others. Like the MacBook Neo, the bezel is a bit thicker than I'd like, but not unforgivably so.

Where Acer wins on design is with its ports. On the left side of the laptop, you get two full Thunderbolt 4 ports over USB-C, which we haven't seen from any other laptop in this class yet. The right side features a 10GBps USB Type-A port and a 3.5 mm headphone jack. This system has more and faster ports than both the MacBook Neo and Dell XPS 13, which is great for people on a budget who still use a lot of peripherals, or want to use a wireless dongle while still having other ports available.

At 2.62 pounds, the Swift Air 14 is heavier than the 2.2-pound XPS 13, but still slightly lighter than the 2.7-pound Neo. I don't mind the weight, but others on my team found it felt heavy compared to Dell's laptop.

At 0.51 inches at its thinnest, the Swift is on par with the Neo and XPS 13 (both 0.5 inches thick). There's a small foot on the bottom of the Swift that pushes it to 0.71 inches thick, which might matter a bit in a backpack, but it won't feel any thicker than the other systems when you're holding it.

Acer Swift Air 14 Specifications

Productivity Performance on the Acer Swift Air 14

The Intel Core 5 320, 8GB of RAM, and 512GB PCIe Gen 3 SSD make the Acer Swift 14 a decent (but not startling) performer that's best for a few simple tasks at a time.

On Geekbench 6, the Swift Air notched a single-core score of 2,613 and a multi-core score of 7,977, putting it in close proximity to the Dell XPS 13, which uses the same chip. The Chuwi UniBook, with an Intel Core 3 304, was the lowest on the charts, while the MacBook Neo with its Apple A18 Pro was the fastest performer.

The Swift 14 outperformed on Handbrake, transcoding a 4K video to 1080p in 10 minutes, just 3 seconds behind the Macbook Neo. The Swift was a surprising 38 seconds faster than the XPS with the same chip.

On our file transfer test, the Swift Air copied 25GB of files at a rate of 677.24 MBps, slightly faster than the MacBook Neo, but significantly slower than the XPS 13.

Usually, we stress test productivity laptops running Cinebench 2026. But like some other Wildcat Lake-based laptops, the Swift Air wouldn’t run that benchmark. Instead, to get some speeds, we opted to measure while running Handbrake. While transcoding a 4K video to 1080p, the Core 5 320's two P cores ran at 3.3 GHz, while the four low-power E cores ran at just over 3 GHz.

Display on the Acer Swift Air 14

Acer's 14-inch, 1920 x 1200 screen is colorful enough for its price, but I sure wish it were a bit brighter.

While I watched the trailer for Avengers: Endgame, I found myself reaching for the button to raise the brightness even in decently lit scenes (like a group gathering in Avengers Tower), only to find the brightness was turned all the way up. In darker scenes, like those taking place in the X-Mansion, shadows were overwhelming. At least the blacks were deep.

On our testing, we found that the Swift Air 14 covered 107% of the sRGB color gamut and 75.8% of DCI-P3. That's within range of both the MacBook Neo and the Dell XPS 13. But both of those laptops have more luminous panels (the XPS 13's is also higher resolution, at 2560 x 1600) that make the colors look better than on the Swift Air.

Keyboard and Touchpad on the Acer Swift Air 14

The keyboard on the Swift Air 14 is fine, but it has some flex while you type, and the keycaps are a little slippery. In fact, they're cheap-feeling. There's more travel than I would have expected, but with the flex, I'm not sure it mattered.

On monkeytype.com, I hit 108 words per minute, which isn't bad, but I'm usually faster. I hit that at 98% accuracy.

The touchpad has a shallow click outside of the very far corners (and also causes the system to flex), but its smooth, glass, and Windows gestures work seamlessly.

Battery Life on the Acer Swift Air 14

For a laptop in its class, the battery life on the Acer Swift Air 14 is fantastic. The system lasted 16 hours and 52 minutes on our battery test, which includes web browsing, video streaming, and light OpenGL work with the screen set to 150 nits.

That was the longest of the group by more than 2 hours. The next highest, the Dell XPS 13, lasted 14:26 on the test, while the Neo brought up the rear at 13 hours and 28 minutes.

Audio on the Acer Swift Air 14

The speakers on Acer's colorful 14-incher are just OK. The quad-speaker system doesn't offer a ton of depth. It's fine at $699.99, but not impressive.

Alice Merton's "Ignorance is Bliss" just filled my living room, but wasn't as loud as I would like. The artist's vocals were a bit hollow, though the song's guitars and snappy drums sounded decent for the price.

You can make adjustments in the DTS:X Ultra app, though I stuck to the default music mode. (Switching to voice made vocals louder, but drowned everything else out). There's also a custom EQ with three preset slots if you want to set the speakers to your liking. Taking some time to tweak, I was able to get the vocals and treble a bit closer to my liking.

Upgradeability of the Acer Swift Air 14

There are four Torx screws on the bottom of the Acer Swift Air 14. While the bottom of the laptop is metal, it's very thin, and the clips holding it to the rest of the chassis are made of plastic. I had to go very slowly around the edges with a prying tool to get inside.

The two major components that you can remove are the SSD and the battery. There's only one SSD slot.

Heat on the Acer Swift Air 14

Usually, we measure how hot a laptop gets during our strenuous Cinebench gauntlet. Because this system couldn't run that test, we stepped down to measuring with Handbrake video encoding.

During that test, the keyboard hit 96 degrees Fahrenheit, while the touchpad was a cool 84.1 F. The hottest point on the bottom of the laptop reached 96.9 F. None of these indicate an overheating laptop, but that's also because we couldn't run more difficult workloads.

Internally, the CPU measured 74.8 degrees Celsius while running the same test.

Webcam on the Acer Swift Air 14

Acer is using a 1920 x 1080 webcam on the Swift Air 14, but higher resolution doesn't always mean better. In testing, I found that it produced noisy, sometimes blurry images. Like many other cameras, it also struggled with open windows.

On the bright side, Acer also includes an infrared camera to support Windows Hello for facial recognition. There’s a small privacy shutter built into the bezel.

Software and Warranty on the Acer Swift Air 14

Acer packs the Swift Air 14 with extra software. Some is its own, but there’s also a lot of bloatware that it likely receives a licensing fee for.

There are more than ten of Acer-branded utilities. The most important of these is AcerSense (which also has a dedicated key on the keyboard). This offers simple performance statistics, extra settings, warranty information, and a few disparate links to excess programs.

Among the other apps are Acer's PurifiedVoice and PurifiedView for noise cancellation and camera enhancements during meetings, a built-in video speed controller, and a built-in QR code reader. That last one is kind of handy in theory, though it often didn't see the codes I was trying to scan.

Even on a $700 laptop, the inclusion of Forge of Empires, Solitaire, Amazing Block Blast, the Google Play Games beta, Dropbox, Booking.com, NordVPN, and a knockoff app store called App Explorer feels like a bit much. These are found in the Start Menu, pinned to the taskbar, and in the bookmarks bar in Microsoft Edge. It's just too much.

Acer sells the Swift Air 14 with a one-year warranty.

Acer Swift Air 14 Configurations

We tested the Swift Air 14 in a $699.99 configuration with an Intel Core 5 420, 8GB of memory, 512GB of storage, and a sage green colorway. As of this writing, this system is available at Best Buy in the United States.

Acer tells us that three additional models will be available exclusively at Best Buy Canada at $999.99 CAD, though we don't know what will be different or if they will include the other colors.

Bottom Line

If you have a budget of $699 and prioritize ports over all else, the Acer Swift Air 14 should be your choice. It has high-speed Thunderbolt 4 ports, a headphone jack, USB Type-A, and a headphone jack. With a 1920 x 1200 screen that isn't the brightest, it also reached over 16 hours of battery life in our tests.

But if you prioritize anything else, the MacBook Neo and Dell XPS 13 offer some significant upgrades at the same price. The Neo has performance for the price on lock, as well as improved build quality and the brightest screen of the bunch. The XPS 13 has the highest-resolution display and makes it a touchscreen; it also has a stiffer build than the Swift Air.

But if battery life and ports are your two strongest priorities, and you're willing to make some sacrifices on build quality and uninstall a bunch of bloat, the Swift Air 14 definitely earns a place among the recent budget laptop competition.

The computing world is splintering into two. At IFA 2026, the world of laptops continued its trajectory from Computex towards a logical conclusion: a world where personal computing aims at the low end to combat the MacBook Neo and pick up customers during a RAM shortage, but otherwise focuses on high-end systems that promise to be agentic machines for the next chapter of the AI boom.

There are machines that are below $800 with 8GB of RAM, and there are machines that are multiple thousands of dollars with anywhere from 128GB to 192GB of memory. Want something in between? Good luck.

The MacBook Neo's long shadow

When Apple announced the MacBook Neo in March, other laptop OEMs jumped to compete. Devices like the Dell XPS 13 and Chuwi UniBook came quickly (with varying degrees of success), packing Intel's budget-focused Wildcat Lake processors. But it took until IFA for those companies to finally reveal something truly designed to take on the MacBook Neo. The Lenovo IdeaPad Vibe laptops come in seven colors, up from the Neo's four, ranging from "lowkey gray" to "spicy gold," with optional color keyboards and two screen sizes. Unlike other Neo competitors, Lenovo is opting for a mix of Qualcomm Snapdragon X and AMD Ryzen AI 400 chips rather than flocking to Intel.

Dell's new 14S also has four colors, including a surprisingly bold "velvet green." But its biggest iteration is that it also adds ports. While the XPS 13 had just two USB-C ports, the 14S also has HDMI and a headphone jack. Acer also debuted a 16-inch version of its Swift Air (also in three colors). These laptops were widely considered some of the best from the show. Colors have been a rarity in the Windows PC market, and now that these companies are chasing Apple, they're back.

On the bright side, this means that the spur of affordable, more premium laptops wasn't just a blip following the MacBook Neo. It's still going six months later, and given that Apple is rumored to be releasing a follow-up next year, nicer, colorful laptops may be a permanent fixture of the market.

Agentic AI computers: Laptops or furniture?

The other computers at IFA were all largely focused on running agentic AI. There are finally systems getting ready to ship with AMD's Ryzen AI Max+ Pro 495, with up to 192GB of unified memory. Those include the Lenovo ThinkCentre X along with options from smaller names like Minisforum and GMKtec. The companies that are listing prices have them as high as $7,000. (When Strix Halo launched, entry-level configurations could be found under $2,000 with 64GB of memory, so these high-end systems with more memory aren't a shock given rising prices.)

Those were on display while Nvidia continued to hype its RTX Spark N1X platform, which will launch in October in two configurations. Two new devices, one from Acer and one from Lenovo, debuted at IFA, though we're still waiting on pricing for every RTX Spark device we've seen so far.

AMD's systems were portrayed as workstations in most cases, while others, like an AI NAS from Minisforum, gave us a look into what having some sort of AI furniture — dedicated AI hardware with access to your files that's not connected to a screen — could look like. Nvidia's laptops, all running Windows, are a mix of workstation, gaming PC, and agentic AI PC, though those demos were behind handlers, and we weren't able to try them ourselves.

All of these systems were shown running some sort of AI agent. Nvidia's bounced between Hermes and OpenClaw, while the many vendors showing AMD systems often had their own software, typically with the word "Claw" in there somewhere, running a variety of models locally.

These are all a swing away from what the industry called an "AI PC" just a few years ago. Now, with way more memory and far more compute (and less talk about NPUs), Nvidia, AMD, and the companies making the hardware are betting that you or your company are ready to set up agents and have them run workflows, and that you'll pay a pretty penny to do so.

Two extremes, but what about the rest of us?

There are clearly two visions of computing now: one with the power for local AI models to run tasks on your device (though how easy those will be to set up is an open question), and another where you do basic tasks on cheap computers. What about the rest of us? The people who are happy to spend $800 - $1,500 on a laptop or mini PC to get a bit of extra RAM and storage, the most premium build quality, higher-resolution displays, better speakers, and, of course, a bit more performance? Other than Dell recently adding Intel's Core Ultra Series 3 processors to the XPS 13 (which itself isn't the most premium), it's been quiet on that front.

Perhaps we have to wait for Intel to drop Nova Lake mobile, or for AMD to move forward with Medusa Point, to see these types of systems. Word on those has been quiet, but maybe next year, at CES, we'll see a return of the performance laptop. (Apple is likely to bring its M6 to the MacBook Air, but the company doesn't really do trade shows.) Or maybe memory prices mean something has to give ... and the laptop for everyone else is what is giving. But without new silicon aimed at that market, it seems that the Windows world is happy to be split into two extremes.

In today’s AI-dominated tech space, gamers have been bombarded with rising prices for storage, memory, and even GPUs. So gamers are increasingly looking for value when purchasing a new system. To that end, HP is attempting to deliver solid gaming performance at an accessible price with the HyperX Omen 15. It’s worth noting that the Omen now takes the place of the Victus 15 in HP’s mainstream gaming laptop range, with the Omen Max occupying the top spot.

The Omen 15 has a strong foundation with a Core Ultra 9 processor, 32GB of RAM, a 15.3-inch 1800p OLED display, and a sleek design. HP delivers all this for just over $2,000, and it has strong gaming performance, but there are compromises in chassis construction and features you’d expect at this price point.

Design of the HyperX Omen 15

The Omen 15 shares its design language with the slightly larger Omen Max 16 that I previously reviewed. It’s an unassuming design, finished in Shadow Black, with just a hint of shimmering flakes if you look closely under light. There aren’t any garish design flourishes or additional RGB effects (other than the keyboard).

Like the Omen Max 16, the Omen 15 identifies itself with an “O15” script on the right side of the deck. Given that the Omen 15 is less than half the price of its larger sibling, you only get an aluminum lid. Everything else, including the upper and lower chassis, is constructed of a much cheaper (and more pliable) plastic.

The desk easily deforms when pressing on it, and the whole laptop flexes with minimal effort, twisting it from corner to corner. The overall feel of the laptop doesn’t quite seem up to par with what I’d expect from a gaming laptop priced over $2,000.

There’s also another interesting omission when looking around the chassis. Despite its price tag, there are no Thunderbolt ports. And you only get one USB-C 3.2 Gen 1 port on the back, beside an HDMI 2.1 port. There’s a GbE Ethernet port and a USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 port on the right side of the chassis, while a proprietary barrel-style power port, another USB-A port, and a 3.5 mm combo audio jack are on the left.

Our Omen 15 review unit measures 13.5 x 9.96 x 0.93 inches and weighs 4.89 pounds. For comparison, the Gigabyte Aero X16 is 14 x 9.9 x 0.78 inches and 4.2 pounds, while the Framework Laptop 16 measures 14.03 x 11.43 x 0.82 inches and 5.29 pounds. Finally, the Predator Triton 14 AI is 12.68 x 8.84 x 0.71 inches and 3.5 pounds (due to its smaller 14.5-inch display).

HyperX Omen 15 Specifications

Gaming and Graphics on the HyperX Omen 15

Our Omen 15 review unit came configured with an Intel Core Ultra 9 386H processor, 32GB of DDR5-5600 memory, and a GeForce RTX 5070 GPU (85W TGP).

As for the assembled competitors, we have the Aero X16 (Ryzen AI 7 350, 32GB, RTX 5070 85W), Predator Triton 14 AI (Core Ultra 9 288V, RTX 5070 110W), and Framework Laptop 16 (Ryzen AI 7 350, RTX 5070 100W).

I’ve been playing a lot of Battlefield 6 recently, and I tend to run at native resolution in Overkill detail mode, with DLSS Quality and frame generation enabled. However, I dialed it back to High detail mode instead of Overkill to accommodate just 8GB of memory on the RTX 5070. Using these settings, I was able to average between 70 and 85 frames per second.

We start off our gaming benchmarks with Shadow of the Tomb Raider (Highest settings), where the Omen 15 started off on the right foot with 126 FPS at 1080p resolution and 60 FPS at 1800p. The Framework Laptop 16 eked out 6 additional FPS at 1080p and another 17 at its native resolution. However, we still consider it a good showing, given that the RTX 5070 in the Omen 15 operates at a 85W TGP (versus 100W for the Framework) and at a higher native resolution (1800p versus 1600p).

Cyberpunk 2077 (Ray Tracing Ultra settings) again saw the Omen 15 in second place to the Laptop 16. This time, it hit 35 FPS at 1080p resolution compared to 38 FPS for the Laptop 16. Performance at 1800p was in the single digits for the Omen 15, while the Laptop 16 managed 18 FPS. Both are slideshow-worthy numbers that are nothing to brag about.

Far Cry 6 (Ultra settings) was a high point for the Omen 15, which bested all competitors with 107 FPS at 1080p resolution. Cranking the dial to 1800p, that figure dropped to 69 FPS, compared to 70 FPS for the Aero X16 running at 1600p. The Laptop 16 forged ahead with 83 FPS at 1600p.

Red Dead Redemption 2 (Medium settings) was something of a sore spot for the Omen 15 (59 FPS at 1080p), which fell well below the Aero X16 (78 FPS) and the Laptop 16 (91 FPS). Boosting the resolution to 1800p also saw the Omen 15 in third place, with 35 FPS, well off the pace set by the Laptop 16 (57 FPS).

Forza Horizon 6 (Ultra settings) is a more recent benchmark in our testing suite, and so far, the Omen 15 is the only entry in this class of gaming laptops. With that said, the Omen 15 achieved 80 FPS at 1080p and 51 FPS at 1800p.

On our Metro Exodus stress test, the Omen 15 review unit averaged 141.62 FPS at 1080p across 15 loops using the RTX preset. The CPU performance cores averaged 3.52 GHz, the efficiency cores averaged 2.82 GHz, and the low-power efficiency cores ran at 1.9 GHz. The RTX 5070 GPU averaged 2.0 GHz.

Productivity Performance on the HyperX Omen 15

With a Core Ultra 9 386H processor, 32GB of DDR5-5600 memory, and a 1TB PCIe 4.0 SSD onboard, we expected solid performance from the Omen 15. Those expectations were met in terms of CPU performance, while storage performance lagged a bit behind the competition.

The Omen 15 performed well in Geekbench 6, hitting 2,857 in the single-core benchmark, keeping it right in the mix with the other competitors. However, it sprinted out ahead of the pack in multi-core, delivering 15,916 compared to 14,074 on the second-place Aero X16.

The Omen 15 was at the back of the pack on our file transfer test, coming in at 999 MBps from the Samsung MZVMX1T0HCLD-00BH1 SSD versus an average of around just under 1,500 MBps for the other three competitors.

Moving on to our HandBrake test, where we transcode a 4K video file to 1080p, the Omen 15 took the top spot, finishing the task in 3 minutes and 39 seconds. That was about 15 seconds faster than the second-place Aero X16.

Display on the HyperX Omen 15

Our review unit came equipped with a 15.3-inch 2880 x 1800 OLED display. Interestingly, the refresh rate is limited to just 120 Hz, compared to the faster 144 Hz to 165 Hz that we see in competitors like the Aero X16 and Laptop 16.

The Omen 15’s OLED panel performed roughly on par with the rest of the laptops in this segment, as it covered 132.3 percent of the DCI-P3 color space and 186.8 percent of sRGB. It even managed to take the top spot in the brightness category, hitting 460.2 nits compared to 444 nits for the Laptop 16.

I love OLED panels, and the 1800p unit on the Omen 15 just proves that that love shows no sign of abating. Colors looked rich, blacks were jet black, and brightness levels in my home office setting (with an abundance of overhead lighting) were more than adequate.

I played quite a bit of Forza Horizon 6 using the Omen 15, and marveled at the bright, colorful, and reflective car bodies as I competed in various events.

Keyboard and Touchpad on the HyperX Omen 15

There have been noticeable improvements made to the Omen 15’s keyboard, at least compared to the previous Victus 15. The biggest change is the move from half-height arrow keys to full-size. The tiny, half-height function keys have also been enlarged.

HP also boasts of an 8K polling rate for the Omen 15’s keyboard (equating to a response time of 0.125 ms). I wouldn’t consider myself to be a highly competitive gamer, so any upgrades in this area are lost on me. The keyboard also features 4-zone RGB backlighting.

Using the Keyhero.com typing test, I averaged around 87 words per minute with 95% accuracy, which is on par with my typical typing speed. I found the keyboard comfortable for typing and gaming.

There’s nothing particularly noteworthy about the touchpad, which features a top-hinged design. Its surface allowed my finger to glide smoothly, although it is a bit loud and clanky when clicked.

Audio on the HyperX Omen 15

The Omen 15 features stereo speakers supporting DTS:X Ultra and HyperX Audio Control. I was pleasantly surprised by the sound emanating from the speaker, which was rich in volume and clarity. While lacking any real semblance of bass, the underlying output was clean.

I took the opportunity to fire up “Mujahadin and Opium,” which is a horn- and string-filled track by John Barry from The Living Daylights soundtrack. There is just something very chilling about the interplay of the strings and horns; the former of which starts the track, while the latter beautifully fills in classic James Bond tradition.

The speakers also did well to mimic engine sounds as I went corner carving in Forza Horizon 6, be it a high-strung flat-6 or a burbling V8.

Upgradeability of the HyperX Omen 15

Flipping the Omen 15 over to reveal its bottom panel, you’ll find five screws holding it in place. Three of the screws are exposed, while the two corner screws at the back are hidden beneath tiny rubber plugs. I needed to use a safety pin to pry them out, which was annoying.

With the panel removed, you’ll find easy access to the battery, both M.2 SSD bays, the Wi-Fi card, and the two SO-DIMM slots (which are covered by a flexible I/O shield).

Battery Life on the HyperX Omen 15

The Omen 15 is powered by a 70 WHr battery, and it performed well against its peers. Our battery test leverages web browsing, video streaming over Wi-Fi, and OpenGL testing with the screen brightness set at 150 nits.

The HyperX laptop endured for 8 hours and 30 minutes, which was 10 minutes longer than the Laptop 16 and 14 minutes longer than the Predator Triton 14 AI. However, it was no match for the Aero X16, which lasted 9 hours and 13 minutes.

Heat on the HyperX Omen 15

During the Metro Exodus stress test, we measured the Omen 15's keyboard at 95.4 degrees Fahrenheit (F) between the G and H keys, while the touchpad was 85.1 F.

The hottest part of the laptop was near the bottom-rear of the chassis, measuring 110 F.

While running the Metro Exodus stress test, the CPU measured 63.4 degrees Celsius (C). Meanwhile, the RTX 5070 came in at 63.2 C.

Webcam on the HyperX Omen 15

The Omen 15 uses a standard 1080p webcam with IR capabilities, meaning it can be used with Windows Hello biometric authentication in Windows 11.

The camera is fine, and by no means a standout in any particular area. It covers the basics, offering decent color reproduction, and did a passable job of picking out my facial hair. However, I did notice a fair amount of noise in the image. However, if you mainly use the camera to hop on a few Zoom calls here and there, it’s more than adequate.

HyperX Omen 15 Software and Warranty

HP has no qualms about loading up its systems with a copious amount of apps, as you'll find a variety of software including HP, HP Documentation, HP PC Hardware Diagnostics, HP Smart, HP Privacy Settings, and HP TV+ (and that's not even all of them).

However, the HP utility that you'll probably interact with the most is the Omen Gaming Hub. Here you'll find controls for tweaking nearly every aspect of the system, from power modes to RGB lighting for the keyboard.

The Omen 15 comes with a one-year manufacturer warranty.

HyperX Omen 15 Configurations

Our Omen 15 review unit came configured with an Intel Core Ultra 9 386H processor, 32GB of DDR5-5600 memory, a 1TB PCIe 4.0 SSD, GeForce RTX 5070 GPU, and a 2880 x 1800 OLED 120 Hz display. It’s listed on HP’s website with an MSRP of $2,799, but is currently available for $2,099 with a 25% off coupon.

There are various configurations available with slightly different specs, but the 15-ga0762nr SKU features a Core i7-14650HX processor, 16GB of DDR5-5600 RAM, a 1TB PCIe 4.0 SSD, an RTX 5060 GPU, and a 2560 x 1600 OLED with a 180 Hz refresh rate. This system is priced at $1,999, or just a $100 discount compared to our review unit’s sale price. However, the price disparity makes more sense when you consider our review unit’s MSRP.

Bottom Line

On the one hand, the HyperX Omen 15 has solid gaming performance across the board, and its CPU performance in productivity tasks is top-of-the-class. In addition, the 15.3-inch OLED display looks great and offers an expansive 2880 x 1800 resolution.

On the other hand, the chassis is constructed of cheap and flexy plastic, while SSD performance lags behind its competitors. In addition, the display is limited to a 120 Hz refresh rate, and you don’t get any Thunderbolt ports (if that’s something that’s important to you at this price point).

Where things get even more complicated is with pricing. Our review unit carries an MSRP of $2,799, but HP is currently selling it for $2,099 after discounts. At MSRP, our review unit is an absolute non-starter, while the sale price makes it a much more palatable option. But even at its sale price, we feel that the Gigabyte Aero X16 makes a far more compelling buy at just $1,799.

Lenovo has a history of bringing concept laptops to the IFA trade show in Berlin, and this year’s pair are all about improving productivity and portability. They also feel closer to something you might actually buy than some concepts we’ve seen in the past.

First up, Project AeroBlade is a 14-inch laptop where, as the company’s press release puts it, “every component is re-engineered around mobility.” For starters, the laptop foregoes fans in favor of Frore Systems’ AirJet solid-state cooling tech, which uses piezoelectric membranes that vibrate ultrasonically, beyond the range of human hearing. There are four AirJet Mini modules here, which is three more than the single AirJet Mini we saw in Intel’s Wildcat Lake reference design back at Computex earlier this year. That should mean much better sustained performance than we’ve seen from passively cooled PCs in the past.

Frore System’s latest AirJet Mini modules are rated to dissipate 7.5 watts of heat, giving the AeroBlade laptop 30 watts of active heat dissipation. This pairs well with the 17-30W-TDP Intel Lunar Lake silicon Lenovo is using in this concept. The more recent Wildcat Lake chips are rated from 15-35W, so should also fare reasonably well with a similar solid-state cooling setup.

Project AeroBlade also uses a tiny motherboard, which, along with a magnesium-aluminum frame, results in a laptop that is just 0.39 inches (10 mm) thick and weighs less than 1.83 pounds (830 grams). The slimness means you’ll have to live on USB-C /Thunderbolt 4 ports alone, but the laptop includes three of them, along with an OLED screen and Wi-Fi 7.

The company is using Intel’s Lunar Lake here, but of course, if the concepts behind this design eventually become a laptop you can buy, it will ship with a more modern CPU. I’d love to see what kind of performance and battery life Wildcat or Panther Lake could deliver in this svelte laptop form factor.

The company is using Intel’s Lunar Lake here, but of course, if the concepts behind this design eventually become a laptop you can buy, it will ship with a more modern CPU. I’d love to see what kind of performance and battery life Wildcat or Panther Lake could deliver in this svelte laptop form factor.

A 17-inch screen in a 14-inch laptop

Project Swan sees Lenovo return to its rollable-screen ambitions, this time with a concept that at once feels more modest, mainstream, and achievable than previous attempts. Housed in a mostly standard-looking 14-inch ThinkBook chassis, the screen expands at the press of a button into a 17-inch, 16:9 display with a 2850 x 1672 resolution. That’s not quite 16:9, but there’s likely some small amount of the rollable OLED display that remains off the visible screen in this concept design.

As you would expect, this isn’t the thinnest or lightest 14-inch laptop, weighing in at 3.53 pounds (1.6kg) and measuring 0.7 inches (17.9 mm) thick. The extra bulk lives in the lid, which needs to house the rollable display mechanism, as well as bezels that expand out the sides. As is usually the case with these devices, the motor mechanism is louder than would likely be acceptable in a finished product, but at least it worked flawlessly during several open and close cycles – which is not always the case with concepts like this.

Hopefully Lenovo can shrink the required screen hardware slightly if a version of this design gets incorporated into a laptop you can actually buy. Because while I don’t love the extra bulk, the idea of a compact 14-inch laptop that can give me a 17-inch screen on the go is very appealing.

Nvidia is finally getting more specific about the launch of the RTX Spark. The chip, which it is now officially calling the "N1X," will launch in laptops in October and come in two configurations.

The more powerful option will mix a 20-core Grace CPU with a 6,144-core Blackwell GPU, and come with between 24 and 128GB of unified memory. The other variation uses an 18-core CPU and a cut-down 5,120-core Blackwell GPU with between 24 and 32GB of unified memory. That version will only be in laptops.

There's a lot that Nvidia hasn't specified outside of core counts and memory support, but with the chip launching next month, we're sure to find out more, either through Nvidia or OEMs, soon enough.

Nvidia made the announcement ahead of IFA in Berlin, where Lenovo and Acer announced new systems with Nvidia's new chips. Lenovo debuted the Yoga 9n 2-in-1 laptop, while Acer is debuting the SFF RTX Spark, a mini desktop. As of this writing, neither has pricing.

Further systems will come from Asus, Dell, MSI, HP, and Microsoft, the latter of which debuted the flagship Surface Laptop Ultra at Computex this year. These systems are being pushed as laptops and mini PCs meant primarily for agentic AI, though Nvidia has also demonstrated its gaming prowess in demos. We'll need to get our hands on these to test both scenarios. The company is also promising "all-day battery life," another claim we'll need to test.

The use of the N1X name has occurred in leaks, but this is the first time Nvidia has used it publicly. This suggests a separate, lower-end N1 chip may exist and be released down the line.

It's unclear exactly which devices will launch in October and which might come out later in the year. It's likely that that information will come soon, now that Nvidia has chosen a month. We'll also have to see if Microsoft's Agent Framework, which lets agents run in the background under control of the operating system, is ready in Windows by then.

Nvidia's unified memory approach is similar to the one popularized by Apple in its M-series chips, including the recently announced M6 and M5 Ultra, which also uses an Arm instruction set. On the x86 side, AMD's Strix Halo (and upcoming Gorgon Halo) also use unified memory.

The launch of these chips will also break Qualcomm's exclusivity on Windows on Arm, bringing a major new silicon vendor into the ecosystem, and possibly more partnerships from application developers eager to use Nvidia's tools.

The arrival of the MacBook Neo seems to have reminded other PC makers that people like color (and relative affordability), and the IdeaPad Vibe line appears to be Lenovo’s answer to both. Starting at $699 when they arrive later this year and offered in 14- or 15-inch screen sizes, the laptops will feature seven color options and either an all-metal chassis or a metal lid and keyboard deck, with a plastic bottom. In a twist, the company will also offer swappable keycaps (pretty uncommon in the laptop space) that can either match your laptop’s color or veer away from it for some striking contrast.

Lenovo says the laptops will start at 1.3kg (2.87 pounds), offer up to 24GB or 32GB of RAM (more with the AMD-based models, where you can also opt for a larger 65 WHr battery), and feature either 120 Hz IPS or OLED screens. Oddly, the OLED options will only be offered in the most subdued hues – lowkey gray and moody blue.

Internally, the Vibes feature two M.2 SSD slots and will be offered with either Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X or AMD’s Ryzen AI 400, and a 50 WHr battery as standard. Lenovo easily beats the MacBook Neo and Dell’s XPS 13 on ports, offering two USB Type-A and two Type-C ports (though they are all capped at 5 GB/s), along with HDMI, a headphone jack, and a microSD card slot.

Of course, given that both the AMD and Qualcomm chips feature prominent NPUs, Lenovo is also pushing its cross-platform Qira AI (also offered in Motorola phones), which the company says “features Workato-powered connections such as email, calendar, and collaboration services, helping users find relevant information and move from intent to action through natural-language requests with less app switching.”

Lenovo notes that Qira will only be offered “on select configurations,” and RAM is listed across the lineup simply as “up to 24GB.” Given the high price of memory these days, the $699 starting configs will almost certainly ship with just 8GB of RAM. So don’t expect the lower-end configurations to be particularly friendly when it comes to local AI tasks.

Lenovo says the AMD-based IdeaPad Vibe laptops will arrive first, starting in October, while Snapdragon models will land in November. And the company promises Intel options as well, arriving at an as-yet undisclosed date.

If you like the colors offered on the Vibe line, but don’t need portability, Lenovo will also be offering its IdeaCentre AIO i with Intel Core Series 3 CPUs and a 27-inch screen in similar colors. It will ship with a matching keyboard and mouse, starting at $939 in November.

AMD's Gorgon Halo is breaking cover at IFA. Ahead of the show, Lenovo revealed the ThinkCentre X Ultra with up to an AMD Ryzen AI Max+ Pro 495 processor, with an integrated AMD Radeon 8065S GPU, and 128GB of RAM.

The system is set to release in November 2026 with an "expected" starting price of $3,669, which is surely not for the top-end model.

The system is fairly compact at 7.2 x 7.2 x 2 inches, about two inches longer than a Mac Mini on either side. The front of the system features two 10GBps USB-C ports and a headphone jack. The back boasts DisplayPort 2.1 and HDMI 2.1, two 10GBps USB Type-A ports, a pair of Thunderbolt 4 ports (USB 40GBps, rare on AMD platforms), a 10Gb Ethernet jack, and a punch-out port to add additional output. Lighting on the system that you can see through the front air intakes shows the system status at a glance.

Lenovo is offering both Linux and Windows options. The system will come with AMD Ryzen AI Developer Center, which includes preconfigured AI models and tools, as well as example workflows to use. Up to four ThinkCentre X Ultras can be used in a cluster to run larger models, more agents, extra requests, or longer context windows.

Lenovo and AMD are set to have some competition in the mini PC space this year, as Nvidia is launching systems with its RTX Spark from OEM companies sometime this fall.

Lenovo is providing a full spec list for the Yoga Pro 9n, the Nvidia RTX Spark-powered laptop it announced at Computex, and has a second Spark system ahead of IFA: the Yoga 9n 2-in-1, a 16-inch convertible.

Both systems are listed as using Grace CPUs with up to 20 Cores and Blackwell RTX graphics with up to 6,144 cores, suggesting there will be multiple RTX Spark chips to choose from for both systems. While the 2-in-1 will top out at 64GB of unified memory, the clamshell Yoga Pro will go up to 128GB. It's also notable that the 2-in-1 will use seemingly lower-end QLC storage, while that's not mentioned in the Pro specs. We also know that the 15-inch Pro will have up to 80W TDP, one of the first official TDPs we've heard for an RTX Spark system (we don't yet know that information for the 2-in-1).

Both are also pushing 9.2-megapixel cameras that connect directly to the processor, as well as the latest Wi-FI standards. The Yoga Pro 9n has a 15.3-inch, 2560 x 1600 OLED screen that sports variable refresh from 48 - 165 Hz, while the 2-in-1 has a larger 16-inch OLED screen at 2880 x 1800 and 30 - 120 Hz.

Both systems are all-black machines, with metal designs and a mix of reflective and matte materials, which we've seen in the Yoga line before, albeit usually in a dark blue color. The 2-in-1 brings back a soundbar in the hinge, which the company stopped using years ago, but allows for clear sound in any position.

Lenovo is pushing the clamshell Yoga Pro as an AI machine, using the Nvidia chip with its CUDA software to allow "increasingly sophisticated AI models to run locally on the device." Windows 11 is supposed to gain features to run more agentic AI, including OpenClaw and Hermes, using Nvidia's own openShell and Windows own security layer.

The system is also being advertised as capable of gaming, development work, video editing (the haptic touchpad features pen support for precise input), and rendering. Despite using Lenovo's premium consumer brand, the Yoga Pro 9n is arguably a workstation.

The Yoga 9n 2-in-1 is being pushed more heavily as a creativity device, with its touch-friendly design and the Yoga Pen Gen 2, though the company is touting AI models here, too. Specifically, Lenovo's blog posts calls out AI tools in ComfyUI and Adobe Premiere Pro, as well as local models like LTX (a model based on video rendering in physical space) and FLUX, a text-to-image model.

Lenovo is keeping the price and release date under wraps. The price, the company's press release says, will come at launch, but when that is isn't detailed. Previously, Nvidia announced that RTX Spark would release this fall.

Many a 20th-century PC enthusiast’s first taste of computing came through the purchase of a Packard Bell pre-built, for rosy-tinted-spectacles good or scarred-for-life bad. It was a huge player in the mid-90s, with over 45% retail market share in the U.S. at its peak. Now Packard Bell is back, under the wing of Acer at IFA 2026, with the Taiwanese PC maker’s unveiling of the Dot family, including a laptop, headphones, input peripherals, and more. However, Packard Bell products will be European market exclusives for now, reports ComputerBase (machine translation).

The Dot series of products, including the headlining DotBook 14, are aimed at the cheap and cheerful end of the market, and it looks like they intend to cut through with quirky and vibrant designs. “Who needs a Formula 1 car for shopping?” asks Acer / Packard Bell on the official product page.

Looking more closely at this laptop’s hardware, it is a 14.5-inch model powered by a last-gen Intel Twin Lake chip.

The Intel Twin Lake processor seems decent, with eight cores (all E-Cores) and running up to 3.9 GHz. The relatively poor touted 7-hour battery life is partly due to a smallish battery.

Design rather than tech specs will likely be an aspect of the DotBook that catches the eyes of laptop buyers. Acer shows off a bright orange clamshell design. The curious orange-among-the-white keys are the Escape, Enter, P, and B keys – does it make some sense now?

The price of the new Packard Bell DotBook 14 looks a little high considering the specs. We’ve seen sources suggesting a €499 price tag, which is roughly $580. But remember European prices include applicable sales tax so the price you see is what you pay. We note that cheap, performant, new Wildcat Lake laptops such as the Chuwi UniBook we reviewed are already around to spoil the DotBook party. Chuwi’s laptop costs $449 and ran for over 14 hours of battery life in our tests. Maybe our nostalgic U.S. readers should not be upset the DotBook is Europe-only.

Other Packard Bell Dot products showcased at IFA include colorful keyboards and mice. There are also some Dot headphones, speakers, a feature phone, a ring light, a food steamer, and even a turntable, for some reason. Mr. Leon Packard and Mr. Herb Bell could never have foreseen such gadgets when the corporation was originally founded nearly 100 years ago.

Names like Sugon or Hygon may not appear on lists of the best CPUs since they often fly under the radar. However, that does not mean they are not making substantial strides in China. According to the latest ITHome report, Sugon has recently teased an upcoming mobile workstation (MWS) designed to push the boundaries of AI performance. The next-generation device boasts a powerful domestic 64-thread processor paired with 16GB of VRAM, a combination that delivers up to 50 tokens per second on local 35B MoE AI models.

Sugon’s device is closer to a traditional laptop form factor rather than those pseudo-portable workstations we have seen over the years that look more like a desktop stuffed inside a suitcase. The mobile workstation is 0.665 inches (16.9 mm) thick, so it is right in line with the thin and lightweight premium laptop category, only slightly thicker than ultrabooks.

Sugon, a prominent Chinese supercomputer manufacturer, does not actually produce processors. Last year, Sugon attempted to merge with Hygon, which originated from a joint venture between AMD and Chinese partners, in hopes of creating a domestic server superpower to rival global giants such as HPE and Dell, but the deal did not go through. Nonetheless, the failed merger did not alter the already close relationship between Sugon and Hygon, with the former already being the latter's largest shareholder.

Sugon did not officially disclose which processor will power the mobile workstation. However, the manufacturer will likely source it from its long-time partner, Hygon. Sadly, knowing the chip has 64 threads does not give us a complete picture of which processor model is inside Sugon's device. For several years, Hygon has offered processors with designs up to 32 cores and 64 threads. Four generations of Hygon chips, spanning from the C86-1G to the C86-4G series, leveraged licensed Zen IP from AMD.

Alternatively, Sugon’s mobile workstation may tap Hygon's latest C86-5G chips. These processors are particularly interesting because Hygon claims they utilize a “new self-developed microarchitecture,” signaling the departure from AMD's Zen microarchitecture. The new C86-5G series, which supports AVX-512, features a four-way simultaneous multithreading (SMT4) configuration, or in other words, four threads per core. If Sugon’s mobile workstation is indeed equipped with one of these chips, it would likely be a 16-core, 64-thread configuration that could provide decent processing power for AI.

The small teaser specifically highlights the inclusion of 16GB of VRAM. The small detail clearly indicates the mobile workstation will come equipped with a discrete graphics card instead of integrated graphics. According to the vendor, the combination of the 64-thread processor and the mysterious 16GB discrete graphics card will deliver AI inference performance that is between 3X and 5X faster than mainstream products currently available on the market.

The performance figures being thrown around are up to 50 tokens per second when running a massive 35-billion-parameter Mixture of Experts (MoE) model locally. By comparison, standard cloud APIs typically offer throughput ranging from 30 to 80 tokens per second. If Sugon can deliver on its promise, its mobile workstation could be a true game-changer for AI workloads.

Sugon has not revealed the availability or pricing for the forthcoming mobile workstation. Given the current pricing for memory and storage products, we expect the mobile workstation to cost a small fortune.

Following Acer's release of the budget-oriented Acer Swift Air 14, the company is now releasing more thin systems based on Intel's Wildcat Lake chips to build out its mid-level offerings. Ahead of IFA, Acer debuted the Swift Blade 14, weighing in at just 799 grams (1.76 pounds), as well as a 16-inch Swift Air.

Swift Blade is a new sub-brand for the Swift line. To achieve featherweight status, the chassis is a mix of aluminum-magnesium alloy and carbon fiber. The laptop is 0.51 inches at its thinnest, so you likely won't notice it in a backpack. The system will come in two colors: marshmallow white and marshmallow blue.

The Blade 14 uses Intel's Wildcat Lake chips, ranging from the Core 3 304 all the way up to the Core 7 350, along with 12GB of LPDDR5 RAM. Its ports include three USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-C ports (one of which is solely for data transfer) and a headphone jack.

The Acer Swift Air 16 is largely a bigger version of the Swift Air 14 it announced at Computex, though you'll also get an OLED display and quad-speaker audio. This system will come in three colors: elemental blue, sage green, and sandstone gold, though in the US, the 14-inch version only ended up shipping in sage. It has many of the benefits the 14-inch version, including an aluminum build, Thunderbolt 4 ports, and a 100W power adapter.

Both systems will come with a variety of OLED and IPS LCD screen options.

Both the Swift Blade 14 and Swift Air 16 are set to launch in North America in the first quarter of 2027, but they'll ship in December in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.

Dell has been spending its year taking on the MacBook Neo and settling in as a staunch advocate of the mid-range laptop. The Dell XPS 13 debuted at $699 to take on Apple's budget device with a higher end screen and lighter chassis, but ahead of IFA, Dell has a new strategy: colors.

The company announced the new Dell 14S (model DS14270), which, like the XPS 13, it's aiming at students and young adults and professionals looking for an "accessible" price tag. The system comes in four color options: linen (a light gold), dusty rose (a subtle pink), washed denim (a light sky blue), and velvet green (a barely teal shade).

"Color is not simply a finishing touch on the Dell 14S," Dell head of product Matt McGowan said in a press briefing ahead of the announcement. "It is the design story." The system is made of aluminum and starts at 2.65 pounds (1.15 kg). It measures 0.48 inches (12.21) mm at the thinnest point and 0.58 inches (13.5 mm) at the thickest.

Dell claims the 14S is the first laptop with a 750 ED PNCM battery, with a cell that stays cool and discharges more slowly. McGowan promised 21 hours of Netflix streaming.

The 14S has more ports than the XPS 13, including two 10Gbps USB-C ports, an HDMI output, and a headphone jack. The XPS 13 only features a pair of USB-C ports. But where the XPS 13 has Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6 for wireless connectivity, the 14S relies on older Wi-Fi 6 and 6E standards, as well as older variants of Bluetooth 5.

The base 1920 x 1200 display is lower-resolution than the Dell XPS 13 (and lacks touch), but the high-end 2880 x 1800 version surpasses the XPS, further entangling the commonalities between the budget systems.

The Dell 14S will launch later this fall, with Dell promising pricing will be announced closer to availability. McGowan said to expect the 14S to be "priced complimentary to the XPS 13."

Alienware’s 16X Aurora (starts at $1,979.99) isn’t just another spec-sheet powerhouse – it’s a statement in restraint. Alienware has shifted toward performance-first minimalism with a cleaner, RGB-free chassis, but it doesn’t compromise on the specs: a 16-inch OLED display running at a blistering 240 Hz, Intel’s Core Ultra HX-series CPU, and Nvidia’s latest RTX 50-series graphics. While its bulk and limited battery life prevents it from being a great travel companion, the Aurora’s overall competence make it worth your attention.

Design of the Alienware 16X Aurora

The Aurora is a discreet gaming laptop. Aside from its nearly inch-thick profile, it does little to distinguish itself. Alienware’s “interstellar indigo” chassis is plain, and the iconic Alien head on the lid is hard to see against it. Unlike many previous-generation Alienware laptops, this one has no external lighting.

Alienware’s build quality is substantial, with aluminum top and bottom panels. A magnesium internal frame keeps the laptop rigid, though the lid can still be opened one-handed. Rounded edges on the bottom of the chassis make the Aurora comfortable to transport, though at 5.66 pounds, it’s a handful. Acer’s Nitro V 16S AI (4.55 pounds) and Gigabyte’s Aero X16 (4.2 pounds) are much lighter.

Alienware’s port selection spreads across the left and rear edges: Thunderbolt 4, USB-C (10 Gbps), two USB-A (5 Gbps), HDMI 2.1, Ethernet, and an audio jack. Having some connections on the back, particularly the barrel-style power connector, preserves mouse space. Internally, the Aurora includes Wi-Fi 7 courtesy of a MediaTek MT7925 card.

Alienware 16X Aurora Specifications

Gaming and Graphics on the Alienware 16X Aurora

We tested the 16X Aurora in its entry-level configuration, featuring a Core Ultra 7 270HX Plus processor, a GeForce RTX 5060 GPU, and 16GB of dual-channel DDR5-5600 RAM.

I saw between 60 and 70 frames per second (fps) playing 007 First Light at 2560 x 1600 with medium settings and DLSS (but not frame generation). The game ran smoothly and didn’t stutter.

For performance comparisons, the Aurora faced the Acer Nitro V 16S AI (Ryzen 7 260, RTX 5060 85 W, $1,299.99 when tested), the Asus TUF Gaming F16 (Core i7-14650HX, RTX 5050 115 W, $1,199.99), and the Gigabyte Aero X16 (Ryzen AI 7 350, RTX 5070 85 W, $1,899.99).

Our comparisons will focus on the 1920 x 1080 resolution. We also included results at each laptop's native resolution: 2560 x 1600 for our Aurora as well as the Gigabyte Aero X16, and 1920 x 1200 for the Acer Nitro and Asus TUF units.

The Aurora 16X is competitive but doesn't stand out in this group. In Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Far Cry 6, and Borderlands 3, it performed 20 to 25% better than the RTX 5060-powered Acer and RTX 5050-powered Asus, but those two surprisingly did better in Cyberpunk 2077 and matched the Aurora in Red Dead Redemption 2.

The Aurora produced varied results against the RTX 5070-powered Gigabyte; While the Aurora took a sizable lead in Far Cry 6 and matched it in Shadow of the Tomb Raider and Borderlands 3, it fell behind in Cyberpunk 2077 and Borderlands 3.

At its 2560 x 1600 native resolution, the Aurora took a drastic performance hit of around 50% from 1080p – from 111 to 64 fps in Shadow of the Tomb Raider, 101 to 72 fps in Far Cry 6, 99 to 64 fps in Borderlands 3, 28 to 15 fps in Cyberpunk 2077, and 69 to 45 fps in Red Dead Redemption 2 – but, excepting Cyberpunk 2077, its performance remained playable.

To stress-test gaming laptops, we run 15 loops of the Metro Exodus benchmark at RTX settings, simulating about half an hour of gaming. The Aurora averaged 76 fps across all runs with no more than a fraction of one frame between runs. During the test, the Core Ultra 7 270HX Plus ran at 3.1 GHz on its P-cores and 2.5 GHz on its E-cores while the RTX 5060 ran at 2.48 GHz.

Productivity Performance on the Alienware 16X Aurora

Our Aurora 16X arrives with a Core Ultra 7 270HX Plus, 16GB of RAM, and 1TB PCIe 4.0 SSD.

Powered by the Core Ultra 7 270HX Plus, the Aurora predictably outclassed these competitors, which all use previous-generation processors and/or lower-tier chips. In Geekbench 6, it took the top single-core (3,065) and multi-core (17,753) scores, distantly trailed by the Core i7-14650HX-powered Asus (2,710 and 15,013) and Ryzen AI 7 350-powered Gigabyte (2,916 and 14,074). It also clinched the leading time of 2 minutes and 25 seconds in our 4K-to-1080p Handbrake transcoding test, easily outdoing the Asus (3:33), Gigabyte (3:54), and Acer (4:32).

The Aurora also took top honors in our 25GB file transfer test, averaging 2,358.23 MBps. Acer’s Nitro V 16S AI (1,838.88 MBps), the next fastest unit, wasn’t even close.

Display on the Alienware 16X Aurora

All Aurora configurations include the same 16-inch OLED panel with a 2560 x 1600 resolution, 240 Hz refresh rate, and Nvidia G-Sync support. It’s the laptop’s standout feature, pairing the inky contrast expected from OLED with vivid color and unusually strong brightness for this panel type.

In 007 First Light, OLED added a level of depth that a lesser display wouldn’t match, giving shadow-heavy night scenes a richer, moodier look while keeping Malta’s sunlit desert environments bright and crisp. The panel’s sharpness and color also stood out while watching Avengers: Endgame, where fine details such as the nano-texture pattern on Iron Man’s suit were easy to pick out. There’s little to criticize here: the Aurora’s display is excellent.

Our lab results back that up. The Aurora peaked at 381.4 nits, which is bright for OLED and nearly tied the IPS-equipped Acer Nitro V 16S AI at 391.8 nits while nudging past the Gigabyte Aero X16’s 368.6 nits. Color coverage was also impressive, reaching 138% of DCI-P3 and topping both the Asus TUF Gaming F16 at 122.2% and the Gigabyte at 110.8%.

Keyboard and Touchpad on the Alienware 16X Aurora

I nearly matched my personal best typing speed on the 16X Aurora, hitting 123 words per minute with 99% accuracy in the MonkeyType typing test. The keys have enough travel and a precise feel, but the overall typing experience is competent rather than memorable. The RGB backlighting only has one zone, and while Alienware Command Center offers effects such as breathing, morph, pulse, spectrum, and rainbow wave, the excitement is undermined by the lighting being too dim to stand out in a well-lit room.

The touchpad is similarly ordinary. It’s average-sized, with a smooth tracking surface and predictable top-hinged mechanical clicks, though those clicks are louder than I prefer.

Audio on the Alienware 16X Aurora

The Aurora’s speakers are serviceable but unremarkable. Their placement on the sides of the palm rest creates a decent stereo effect, and output is clean enough, with no obvious tinniness and adequate volume for personal listening. In Phil Collins’ “Don’t Lose My Number,” however, drum hits lacked low-end impact, even though vocals came through clearly and instrument separation was strong.

Movies and games fare better with the Dolby app’s Movie and Gaming modes since they boost the sense of surround sound and help the sound feel fuller, but the weak bass still holds back the overall experience.

Upgradeability of the Alienware 16X Aurora

The Aurora is about as upgradeable as laptops get. Opening it up is mostly straightforward - undo the Philips-head screws in the bottom cover, then use a plastic pry tool to pop the clips around the edges. Not all the screws are the same size, and the rear corners are captive and don’t come out.

Upgrades include two DDR5 SO-DIMM slots under the square black shield between the cooling fans, two M.2 2280 drive slots, an M.2 2230 wireless card, and the 96 Whr battery.

Battery Life on the Alienware 16X Aurora

Our battery testing consists of web browsing, running OpenGL tests, and streaming videos with the screen at 150 nits while connected to Wi-Fi. The Aurora’s time of 7 hours and 58 minutes is middling, outlasting only the Asus (6:57). The Gigabyte (9:13) and the Acer (10:17) both lasted several hours longer.

Heat on the Alienware 16X Aurora

During our 15-loop Metro Exodus stress test, surface temperatures on the Aurora were 101 degrees Fahrenheit (F) between the G and H keys, 83 F on the touchpad, and 101 F on the underside around the exhaust vents.

Internally, the Core Ultra 7 270HX plus averaged 67 Celsius (C) while the RTX 5060 ran at 73 C.

Webcam on the Alienware 16X Aurora

Alienware’s 1080p webcam shows slight grain and the image looks slightly over-sharpened, but the picture is well-exposed, colorful, and doesn’t blow out highlights. It’s missing a privacy shutter, but that’s not unusual for a gaming laptop. It does, however, include an IR sensor for facial recognition logins via Windows Hello.

Software and Warranty on the Alienware 16X Aurora

The Aurora’s main app is Alienware Command Center, which brings system monitoring, power profiles, keyboard lighting, and game library management into one place. Its power presets cover battery, quiet, balanced, and performance modes, while AlienFX handles the single-zone RGB keyboard effects. The app also links out to Dolby for audio tuning. Dell SupportAssist is also included for support access and system updates.

The laptop is backed by a one-year warranty.

Alienware 16X Aurora Configurations

We tested the 16X Aurora in a mildly upgraded configuration, which pairs a Core Ultra 7 270HX processor with an RTX 5060 GPU, 16GB of RAM, and a 1TB SSD. It retails for $2,279.99 from Dell, though I saw it as low as $1,679.99 during our review period. The base model drops to a 512GB SSD and retails for $1,529.99.

Available upgrades include a Core Ultra 9 290HX CPU and RTX 5070 or RTX 5070 Ti graphics. Adding both the Ultra 9 and the 5070 Ti pushes the price to $3,029.99. The memory tops out at 64GB (two 32GB modules) and storage drives are available up to 4TB (two 2TB drives in RAID 0).

Standard features across all models include the 16-inch 2560 x 1600 OLED display, 96 Whr battery, single-zone keyboard backlighting, and Wi-Fi 7.

Dell’s pricing seems to align with the market – I found various other gaming laptops featuring a Core HX-class CPU, a premium screen, and an RTX 5060 or RTX 5070 for within about $100 of what the Aurora commanded.

Bottom Line

The Alienware 16X Aurora is a highly competent gaming laptop with a clear highlight: its superb 16-inch OLED display. It pairs solid gaming performance with reassuring build quality, practical connectivity, and strong upgradeability, while avoiding any major pitfalls. Portability is the main tradeoff, as its weight, size, and middling battery life make it feel more like a desktop replacement than an everyday carry than something like the Razer Blade 16. But if you want a sturdy, capable 16-inch gaming system with a gorgeous screen and few real compromises, the Aurora is easy to recommend.

Asus has been putting liquid metal on mobile dies used in its laptops for a few years at this point. Liquid metal as a TIM has its place, but it's a highly inconsistent solution to a problem that can be solved by other materials. Such was the case with u/nicknickmeetnick, whose Zephyrus M16 gaming laptop was overheating and restarting on its own. Turns out, the instability came from an issue born from the factory — the liquid metal applied on the CPU had slowly eaten away at the heatsink and almost reached the silicon itself.

The post above explains the ordeal in detail and how the user ultimately fixed their problems. The laptop in question is a Zephyrus M16 model from 2022 with an Intel Core i9-12900H processor that was bought just over three years ago. During this period, the laptop was mostly used for lightweight tasks instead of gaming or anything that'd stress it. However, as of late, Nick started to run into various issues where his laptop would overheat and thermal throttle to the point of hard-crashing. Before it'd crash, performance in games would already be degraded.

Nick felt his machine was getting warmer than usual, so he ordered some PTM7950 phase change material to repaste the aging hardware. He was ready to use GD900 thermal paste, but upon opening the laptop, he discovered something shocking. The liquid metal on the CPU was so poorly applied that the overheating processor made some of the liquid metal burn onto the heatsink. Underneath, there's only a thin lid that protects the silicon, and Asus applies liquid metal on top of that as well. The metal here had also spilled out of its dedicated cavity.

We don't need to tell you why that would be a devastating and instantaneous catastrophe. Liquid metal is electrically conductive, which means if it comes into contact with surrounding componentry, it can create microbridges that will short anything in the way. Asus, however, seems to be mixing some abrasive chemicals into the liquid metal to make it more adhesive, such that it sticks to the die better. Unfortunately, these chemicals eat away at the metal over time and cause corrosion.

That's ostensibly what wore out the heatsink and almost the lid underneath as well. Had the user waited for just a while longer, the liquid metal could've seeped onto the die itself. Thankfully, the rogue TIM was removed just in time, but even that process was quite interesting. The OP explained how he used dried cotton to manipulate the existing liquid metal into sanding away the corrosion before taking everything out. For that, he used lots of isopropyl alcohol with cotton sticks to form the liquid metal into a blob that was easy to pluck away with painter's tape.

Once the CPU was nice and clean (well, as clean as possible), OP re-applied GD900 thermal paste and closed everything back up. Right away, the temperatures improved tenfold, and the laptop ran much cooler. Remember, the PTM7950 hasn't even arrived yet, so it will only get better from here. The random reboots stopped, and the only game Nick plays with his kids is now running three times as smoothly. Removing the liquid metal tripled his FPS and restored the Zephyrus M16 to its full glory.

He advised others to do the same. In fact, he suggests banning liquid metal entirely from electronics. It shouldn't be used in laptops to begin with since they're portable devices that move a lot, but even discrete GPUs that sit still for years face problems. This wasn't an isolated case either. A simple Google search returned a dozen different posts on Reddit about liquid metal woes on Asus laptops, which just goes to show that automated, assembly-line liquid metal application is still not perfect.

An enterprising founder and indie hacker has successfully pre-sold enough advertisement sticker space on his dream MacBook’s lid to raise 111% of the laptop’s retail price. Vincent, AKA @VynseDev on Twitter/X, has so far raised $3,274 across a total of 10 sticker positions. With over 12 days of the auction remaining, it isn’t beyond the realm of possibility that the cheeky Bordeaux-based chancer could raise enough for several laptops.

Vincent admits that his Brand My Mac project isn’t an original idea. In a follow-up Tweet, the founder tips his hat to prior projects like Outbid by Jonathan Wilke and BrandMyTesla from Im Bulent. We also recall money-spinning digital online experiments in a similar vein, like the Million Dollar Homepage, and perhaps even the whole NFT industry.

However, the fact that these projects get column inches in media coverage shows that the auctioned advertising space isn’t just seen on Vincent’s new MacBook “both online and IRL.” Advertisers also might get their logos seen in articles like this, as well as in subsequent coverage that comes at the end of the auction.

While logos in the video are obviously placeholders, as Vincent also mentions on social media, the Brand My Mac website shows the current 10 leading bidders’ logos and positions in a rendered Apple laptop. Also on the dedicated auction website, you can see the current winning bid for each spot. Note that some spots command far higher premiums than others, and on either side of the immutable Apple logo there are a pair of half-sized slots.

The prime advertising real estate area of a laptop lid seems to be at the top-middle position, above the Apple logo. Currently, the leader here is RISTI with its bid of $761. For the fee, and by our understanding of the FAQ, Vincent will print and apply a “die-cut vinyl sticker of your logo” in the position you secure. A link on the Brand My Mac website is also thrown in. If you are interested in bidding, you must at least beat the current bid by €10 ($11.65).

With this latest ‘Brand My’ project going viral and already a surefire success, there are some copycat endeavors popping up. Actually, Vincent sees copycats as an opportunity so has decided to create a waitlist for followers to highlight any machine, at any price. Then Vincent’s backend build will have you covered: “the sticker spots, the auction, and everything else is handled for you,” says the enterprising founder and indie hacker.

Finding a good budget laptop under $500 has always been challenging, and rising component costs have pushed even the most basic models over that mark. Chuwi’s UniBook, for $449, looks tempting on paper, pairing Intel's latest entry-level Core processor with a thin metal chassis, a backlit keyboard, and more ports than many of the best laptops. But as with most bargain notebooks, the question is whether spending more is worthwhile, and our overall experience is that the extra you’d spend for the Dell XPS 13 or MacBook Neo gets you a markedly better laptop experience.

Design of the Chuwi UniBook

The UniBook looks more expensive than its $449 price tag suggests. Its aluminum alloy lid and bottom cover give it clean, modern look, while the slim profile helps it blend in with far more expensive ultraportables. It feels solid, with little evidence of flex.

Its compact 0.65-inch profile and 2.64-pound weight make it easy to slip into a bag, and its understated design would look at home in almost any environment. Both the MacBook Neo and the Dell XPS 13 are thinner, and the latter considerably lighter (2.2 pounds), but both are more expensive.

Port selection is the biggest surprise. While many thin-and-light laptops reduce connectivity, Chuwi went the opposite direction, with two USB-C 3.2 Gen 1 ports (both supporting power delivery and DisplayPort), three USB-A ports (two 3.2 Gen 1 and one 2.0), HDMI 1.4b, Gigabit Ethernet, an audio jack, and even a micoSD card slot. Compare this to the USB-C-only selection on the MacBook Neo (which also features a headphone jack) and XPS 13.

Internally, the UniBook’s Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2 standards aren’t the newest, but are perfectly adequate for this laptop’s intended use.

Chuwi UniBook Specifications

Productivity Performance on the Chuwi UniBook

We evaluated the Chuwi UniBook with an Intel Core 3 304 processor, Intel Graphics, 8GB of LPDDR5-6400 memory, and a 256GB PCIe 3.0 SSD.

Our comparison lineup consists of the Apple MacBook Neo and Dell XPS 13. Both laptops start at $699.99 before education discounts, and pack more powerful hardware. The UniBook’s Core 3 304 processor, featuring one performance core and a 4.3 GHz boost, is at a disadvantage next to the Dell’s Core 5 320 processor, which offers two performance cores and a 4.6 GHz boost. Meanwhile, the MacBook Neo uses a smartphone-grade but very capable A18 Pro chip.

The UniBook trailed the XPS 13 and MacBook Neo across the board. Some of this was expected – for instance, its Geekbench multi-core score of 5,889 points was well south of the XPS 13’s 7,952 and the MacBook Neo’s 8,920, a product of its weaker CPU. This followed into its last-place Handbrake showing.

However, its 294 MBps average speed in our 25GB file transfer test was particularly low even for a budget laptop, with less than half the throughput of the MacBook Neo and not even one quarter of the XPS 13’s. You could tell on paper this would happen, givenit's using the older PCIe 3.0 technology.

In daily use, the slow storage drive and single performance core didn’t hamper basic usage. The laptop booted without delay and webpages loaded quickly. With just 8GB of RAM (which can’t be upgraded), multitasking will be limited, but this laptop isn’t aimed at power users.

We normally run 10 loops of Cinebench 2024 or 2026 to stress-test productivity laptops, but both refused to run the UniBook – 2024 cited a GPU memory allocation issue and 2026 crashed at startup. The system’s 8GB of RAM may have been the culprit. As an alternative, we reran our Handbrake video transcoding test. During the test, the Core 3 304 operated at average frequencies of 3.46 GHz on its P-core and 3.1 GHz on its E-cores.

Display on the Chuwi UniBook

The UniBook’s 14-inch, 1920 x 1200 display is serviceable, but it’s also one of the clearest reminders that this is a budget laptop. Though its IPS technology provides wide viewing angles and it benefits from a practical anti-glare surface, dull colors and lack of contrast produce a washed-out picture. Brightness is adequate for indoor use only. In Captain America: Civil War, scenes that should have looked bright and punchy instead appeared subdued, with colors that felt muted rather than lively. For instance, the red on Captain America’s shield skewed more towards orange than red.

The UniBook’s panel covered just 62% of the sRGB color gamut and less than half of DCI-P3, putting it well behind the MacBook Neo and Dell XPS 13. Brightness was also modest at 298.8 nits, more than enough for typical indoor work but not ideal near bright windows or outdoors. For writing, browsing, and streaming casual video, the display is acceptable; for anything else, it is a compromise.

Keyboard and Touchpad on the Chuwi UniBook

The UniBook's keyboard is one of its highlights. Chuwi includes white backlighting, a welcome addition that's often omitted on budget laptops. (Notably, it’s missing from the MacBook Neo.) The keys are comfortably sized and spaced, making it easy to settle into a comfortable typing rhythm. I reached 120 words per minute with perfect accuracy on Monkeytype during my initial run – it felt predictable and responsive, though some keys exhibited occasional rattling that detracted from an otherwise positive typing experience.

The touchpad is compact but responsive and accurate. Its main drawback is the loud mechanical click mechanism, which is noisier than I expected and can become noticeable in quiet environments. Everyone within earshot will know you’re clicking. Otherwise, using the touchpad is comfortable and predictable.

Audio on the Chuwi UniBook

Audio performance is one of the UniBook’s weaker areas. While usable for voice calls, with sufficient volume and clarity, they struggle with entertainment. The sound is thin and lacks bass response, leaving music sounding flat and lacking impact. Listening to Phil Collins’ “Don’t Lose My Number”, for example, I heard almost no bass and the vocals lacked depth. The laptop doesn’t include an audio tuning app with equalizers.

Speaker positioning is also a problem. Because the speakers fire downward from the underside of the chassis near the palm rests, they only perform well when the laptop is on a hard surface. The sound is noticeably muffled if the laptop is in your lap or on a couch or bed.

Upgradeability of the Chuwi UniBook

The Chuwi UniBook offers reasonable upgradeability: the M.2 2280 SSD, M.2 2230 wireless card, and battery can all be changed out by removing the bottom panel. Removing the panel is straightforward, though two different sizes of Philips-head screws are used. The clips on the back edge can then be popped using a plastic pry tool, followed by the sides.

Battery Life on the Chuwi UniBook

Our battery testing consists of web browsing, running OpenGL tests, and streaming videos with the screen at 150 nits while connected to Wi-Fi. The UniBook’s time of 14 hours and 14 minutes is an excellent result for a budget laptop. It practically tied the XPS 13 (14:28) and nosed past the MacBook Neo (13:28).

Heat on the Chuwi UniBook

We normally measure peak laptop surface temperatures while running 10 loops of Cinebench, but that benchmark wouldn’t run on the UniBook. We substituted it with our Handbrake video transcoding test, which fully stressed the CPU for about 12 minutes. The UniBook’s surfaces didn’t stray far from room temperature – we recorded 80 degrees Fahrenheit on the touchpad, 88 F between the keyboard G and H keys, and 92 F on the bottom near the exhaust vents.

Internally, the Core 3 304 ran at an average temperature of 73 degrees Celsius. The exhaust fan was audible but restrained.

Webcam on the Chuwi UniBook

Chuwi’s webcam isn’t great – with just a 720p sensor, images have a soft focus and lack detail. I couldn’t read my wristwatch when I held it more than two feet away. On the bright side, it does offer a privacy shutter, which sometimes even pricier laptops leave out.

Software and Warranty on the Chuwi UniBook

Beyond the usual apps included with Windows 11 Home, Chuwi preloads no other software onto the UniBook.

The laptop is backed by a one-year warranty. Sending the laptop for warranty repairs could prove costly as it will need to be shipped to Hong Kong or Germany at the owners’ expense. (See Chuwi’s warranty policy.)

Chuwi UniBook Configurations

We reviewed the Chuwi UniBook featuring a Core 3 304 processor, Intel Graphics, 8GB of LPDDR5 memory, a 256GB SSD, and a 14-inch IPS 1080p display. It was listed at $449 on Chuwi’s online store at the time of this review, discounted from its $569 MSRP.A second configuration with an Intel Core 5 315, 12GB of RAM, 512GB of storage and a 1080p display that the company claims will cover 100% of the sRGB gamut was listed late in our testing process. As of this writing, the company told us this system is in production but doesn't have a price or release date.

Bottom Line

For buyers seeking a basic ultraportable, the Chuwi UniBook gets a few of the fundamentals right. Solid port selection and respectable battery life stand out in a price bracket where there are typically many compromises. Unfortunately, the compromises stack too quickly: performance that trails far behind machines like the Dell XPS 13 and MacBook Neo, a below-average display, weak speakers and webcam, and the ongoing risk of costly out‑of‑warranty repairs. So while its savings look good on paper, the many downsides and possibility of expensive service make it worthwhile to stretch your budget for a MacBook Neo or XPS 13, both of which are safer long-term investments.

A year after killing off its long-running XPS premium consumer brand, Dell did an about-face at CES early this year, promising new models, including the redesigned XPS 13 we’re looking at here. But between Dell’s announcement and the XPS 13’s launch, Apple stunned the portable PC world with its budget-priced, unquestionably pretty MacBook Neo, at a starting price of $599 (which got bumped up to $699 in June), leaving even Windows die-hards wondering how PC makers were going to compete in the budget and mid-range laptop space.

Dell clearly decided the XPS 13 was its answer to the Neo, giving it a starting price of $699 for the model with 8GB of RAM (comparable to the Neo), or $899 for the 16GB model. Both options sport the same 512GB of SSD storage and an Intel Series 3 Core 5 320 (Wildcat Lake) CPU. We tested both the 8GB and 16GB models, though there is little difference outside of memory capacity.

Design of the Dell XPS 13 (2026)

The XPS 13 may lack the design flourishes of previous XPS models (there is no carbon fiber to be found), but if I had to describe the new XPS 13’s look in one word, it would be “refined.” Available in the silver “sky” color of our review unit, or a darker gray “storm” hue, all the edges are rounded, and the all-aluminum chassis feels premium, with only some slight flex. And I like the understated branding, with a slim, mirrored XPS logo on top and a smaller mirrored Dell logo underneath.

It’s a look that generally doesn’t stray far from the Apple laptop standard, but the XPS 13 actually feels better in the hands than the MacBook Neo. At 11.69 x 7.9 x 0.5 inches, the Dell’s dimensions roughly match the Neo (11.71 x 8.12 x 0.5 inches), but the XPS is a half-pound lighter (2.2 pounds for the Dell versus 2.7 pounds for the Apple), and Dell tapers its edges more, making it feel slimmer. Both are attractive laptops, to be sure, but having held them both side-by-side, I slightly prefer the XPS 13. And considering how much the MacBook Neo wowed the consumer tech world earlier this year, that’s an impressive achievement from Dell.

Port selection is relegated to a single USB-C port on either side. But with the XPS 13, both are 10 Gbps ports that support DisplayPort 2.1 and charging, while Apple’s competition has one 10 Gbps port and one much slower USB 2.0 port (both are USB-C). Apple does include a headphone jack, which the XPS 13 lacks, and that will be annoying for some. But Dell includes a keyboard backlight while Apple leaves your fingers to fumble around in the dark. Personally, I’d take a backlight over an audio jack any day.

The only thing I don’t love about the new XPS 13’s design is the somewhat sharp edge of metal at the bottom rear, behind the exhaust vents. Because the laptop is so slim and light, I found myself grabbing it by any and all angles, and this is the one area where it doesn’t feel premium or comfortable to hold.

Dell XPS 13 (2026) Specifications

Productivity Performance on the Dell XPS 13 (2026)

We tested both the 8GB and 16GB variants of the XPS 13. Aside from RAM capacity, the two machines share the same Intel “Wildcat Lake” Series 3 Core 5 320 CPU, with two Performance cores that can Turbo up to 4.6 GHz and four Efficient cores that can hit 3.4 GHz.

Both systems also make do with 512GB of SSD storage (there are no other capacity options). As we’ll get into in our testing, while the performance is roughly similar, our XPS systems had two different drives: one from SK hynix and the other from Kioxia.

As for comparisons, we’ve included the similarly priced (at least to the 8GB mode) MacBook Neo. And on the Windows side, we’ve included the Chuwi UniBook, which has a plastic chassis and a lesser Wildcat Lake CPU, as well as Dell’s XPS 14 with a more powerful Core Ultra 7 355 CPU and a much higher price of nearly $2,000 as tested.

On Geekbench 6, the XPS 13 bested the Chuwi UniBook with its lesser Core 3 304 CPU, but fell behind the MacBook Neo, and by no small amount on the single-core test. The pricier, Panther Lake-powered XPS 14, interestingly, fell right in line with XPS 13 on this test. But as we’ll see next, that doesn’t mean the two systems perform the same on all tasks.

With eight cores and a higher power envelope to work with, the XPS 14 easily led here, converting our 4K test file to 1080p in under seven minutes. This points out the benefits of a higher-powered system for doing compute-intensive tasks like video editing. The XPS 13, particularly the 8GB model, was a bit behind the MacBook Neo, while the Chuwi laptop lagged more than a minute behind everything else.

Both versions of the Dell XPS 13 looked good in our 25GB file transfer test, but the 16GB model was significantly faster. Dell, like most laptop makers, doesn’t guarantee drive models in specific laptops. But in our two units, the 16GB model had an SK hynix PVC10 SSD, while the 8GB model sported a Kioxia BG7 (both drives are 512GB).

The SK hynix drive was about 350 MB/s faster here, but the MacBook Neo was about half as fast as even the slower XPS 13, and the Chuwi UniBook was half as fast again, not a whole lot faster than a spinning-platter hard drive.

If you’re wondering about gaming on the XPS 13, you probably shouldn’t, unless you’re a fan of retro titles and 2D side-scrollers. The CPU’s integrated graphics make do with just two Intel Xe cores.

In 3DMark’s Steel Nomad, neither the 8GB XPS 13 nor the Chuwi UniBook (which also has 8GB of RAM) would run the test. The MacBook Neo (369) easily edged past the 16GB XPS 13 (369). But the Panther Lake-powered Dell XPS 14 (with twice as many Xe cores) more than doubled the results of its smaller sibling.

To stress test the CPU in laptops, we run 10 loops of Cinebench 2026. The 16GB version of the system started with a score of 1,443, dipped to 1,374, but then ramped up (presumably as the cooking kicked in) to 1701, and then finished the rest of its runs steadily in the high 1600s. During the test, the laptop’s Core 5 320 CPU’s six cores averaged a clock speed of 3.13 GHz.

Interestingly, the 8GB model of the XPS 13 (which again has the same CPU) scored slightly lower than the 16GB version on all but the second run. And that’s likely down solely to the memory limitation. As the benchmark’s developer Maxson explains, running Cinebench 2026 on a system with less than 8.5 GB of RAM “will utilize virtual memory, which triggers a significant amount of paging, lowering the achievable performance.”

There’s little doubt that demanding real-world applications will cause similar performance dips. So even if you think you’re good about closing tabs or don’t otherwise do a lot of multitasking, you may get better performance out of the 16GB model. And if you regularly do demanding tasks like editing video or any kind of rendering, you should opt for something more powerful. Wildcat Lake laptops and the MacBook Neo are designed for lightweight tasks like Web browsing and basic document creation.

8GB vs 16GB

Outside of benchmarks, the biggest question between the 8GB and 16GB configurations is: What is it actually like to use Windows 11 on these systems?

The short answer, unsurprisingly, is that 16GB is better. With 15 identical tabs open in Chrome, the 16GB system just ran smoother. You might have to look closely at the Windows animations to notice, but they were far more fluid with more memory. And more importantly, switching back and forth between tabs was faster on the 16GB version, with the 8GB systems’ browser often blinking white before showing a page again.

Chrome (as well as multiple other browsers) does offer a feature to put tabs to sleep while you're not using them. If you're a multitasker in the browser, you'll absolutely want to make sure this is turned on.

For even the most basic tasks, it would behoove Microsoft to make Windows as efficient as possible, because it shouldn't take just a few tabs to start making the experience worse.

Displays on the Dell XPS 13 (2026)

Dell doesn’t specify the panel type it uses for the XPS 13, but the 2560 x 1600 touch display generally looks good. And its 30-120 Hz refresh is a nice touch that should help battery life in some scenarios. We did, though, notice an issue with our 16GB review unit. When playing back video, the screen often flickered during bright scenes – but only when running on battery. It went away once the laptop was plugged in, which led me to dig into the display settings, where I noticed the dynamic refresh rate was set to be turned off when on battery. Enabling variable refresh made the flickering go away. Dell told us dynamic research should be told on by default.

There is a separate display wrinkle, though. When placing the 8GB and 16GB models side-by-side, there were some clear differences between the two panels. The 8GB’s screen had deeper blacks, but noticeable backlight glow along the edges of the black bars while watching movie trailers. The 16GB model, however, had worse viewing angles. So both screens had their own upsides and drawbacks. Interestingly, as we’ll see below, the two panels' measurements are quite similar, but one is made by Sharp, while the other is from LG.

Like the SSDs, Dell told us that it is multi-sourcing panels. "You’ve seen some variances with individual panels, but each panel should meet the specs set out for XPS 13," a Dell representative told Tom's Hardware.

In our testing, the XPS 13’s screen delivered over 100% of the sRGB gamut, and roughly 75% of the larger DCI-P3 space.

The MacBook Neo’s screen was similarly colorful, but at a measured 452.6 nits, it’s a little brighter than the XPS 13’s panel, which topped out just below 400 nits. But the XPS panels also include touch, which all MacBooks still lack (at least for now). Both the Dell and the Apple systems deliver great screens for machines in this price range. The Chuwi, while a cheaper laptop, also delivers a screen that’s much less colorful and dimmer than the competition.

Keyboard and touchpad on the Dell XPS 13 (2026)

I wouldn’t call the XPS 13’s chiclet-style keyboard one of its strong suits – key travel is fairly shallow, and the keys feel a little stiff. But the slight travel isn’t surprising in a laptop that’s half an inch thick, and I feel like I would get used to the slight stiffness fairly quickly. I didn’t notice any layout issues that confused my fingers, and I could see myself happily using this keyboard for hours a day without any real complaints.

The chiclet style differs from what Dell offers on the XPS 14 and XPS 16, which has the keys placed next to each other in a "lattice-free" design. While I wish there was a bit more travel on the XPS 13, I personally prefer the more traditional chiclet keys over what the company is doing with its larger XPS options.

The touchpad is fairly roomy for a laptop this small, at over five inches. And it’s a physical click pad rather than haptic, but it doesn’t feel cheap. It performed well during my testing time, and is otherwise unremarkable. I like that its top is set just slightly recessed below the deck so both my eyes and my fingers always know where it starts and ends, unlike the previous version of the XPS 13, where its haptic pad was built seamlessly into the wrist area.

That said, the XPS 13’s trackpad, as is traditionally the case, only clicks when you press on or near the bottom. The Neo’s trackpad is also mechanical, but lets you click wherever your fingers land. I don’t particularly find the Neo’s trackpad feature a substantial advantage, but if you’re used to a haptic touchpad, being able to click anywhere on the pad might feel more familiar.

Audio on the Dell XPS 13 (2026)

One thing I wasn’t expecting from the XPS 13 was great-sounding speakers. But for a system this slim and a price below $1,000, the quad-speaker setup here left my ears pleasantly surprised. I listened to Portion Control’s “Brain Scraper Death Dive (Rebuild),” and the 8W of peak output filled my home office with a surprising level of sound, without noticeable distortion, even at 100% volume. There’s even some noticeable bass – within reason, mind you. This is a half-inch thick, 2.2-pound laptop. But considering the XPS 13’s svelte frame and its starting price, the speakers and tuning are excellent.

Upgradability of the Dell XPS 13 (2026)

There are only four tiny Torx screws to remove on the bottom of the XPS 13. But after doing that, getting into the laptop was still quite difficult. Dell recommends prying with your thumbs from the rear center. That didn’t work for me no matter how hard I pushed. Eventually, with the help of a plastic pick-style pry tool, I was able to release a few clips near the slim side vents, then work my way around the edges. The clips where Dell recommends starting from near the rear center were the last to release, and some of the most tenacious I have dealt with in several years.

Once finally inside, there isn’t much to do except stare into the abyss of the stealth-black interior. Swapping the short 2230 M.2 SSD in the upper-right corner should be pretty easy. And replacing the battery down the road doesn’t look too difficult. But that’s all you’re likely to change in here.

Perhaps most interesting for such a small laptop, Dell has equipped the XPS 13 with a pair of fans. Fan noise was audible as a whir, but I really only noticed it during our lengthy Cinebench 2026 stress test. And honestly, if you’re running tasks that tax the CPU for several minutes at a time like this, you should probably opt for something more powerful anyway.

Battery life on the Dell XPS 13 (2026)

The XPS 13 did well compared to similar options in our battery test, which consists of web browsing, running OpenGL tests, and streaming videos with the screen at 150 nits while connected to Wi-Fi. Both the 8GB and 16GB models of the XPS 13 easily topped 14 hours, which is roughly an hour to 90 mins more than the MacBook Neo and slightly better than the Chuwi.

Of particular interest is the half-hour shorter time on the 8GB model. Some of that difference could easily be down to testing variance. But the 8GB version we tested has a Kioxia BG7 SSD, while the 16GB version has an SK Hynix PVC10. Both are DRAMless drives, but the Hynix drive may be more power-efficient during our battery benchmark.

At well over 20 hours, though, it’s the XPS 14 that walks away with the competition here, helped by the fact that its screen is a lower resolution (1,920 x 1,200) than most of the competition here. Still, an extra five-plus hours of unplugged productivity is another reason why you might want to pay more for the slightly larger-screened Dell.

A laptop charger worth calling out

We don’t typically write much about chargers in laptop reviews, but the one that Dell includes with the XPS 13 is exactly the type that I’ve been asking laptop makers to shift to for years now. It’s a tiny charger with folding prongs that’s more typical of the type you might use with a smartphone, and it has a removable cable.

Given that some of the best chargers we’ve tested can charge laptops and are much smaller than a typical laptop brick, it’s nice to finally see a company ship a compact charger with a laptop that is on par in terms of portability with something you can buy yourself for about $25 or less. It would be even nicer if Dell had included a second USB-C port on the power brick so you could charge both your laptop and smartphone at the same time, but I guess I shouldn’t expect miracles. Still, I applaud Dell for including a compact charger with the XPS 13 and hope to see similar chargers from competing PC makers soon.

Heat on the Dell XPS 13 (2026)

During our 10-loop Cinebench 2026 stress test, the XPS 13’s keyboard got warm up near the top row, where we measured the temperature at 104 degrees Fahrenheit, but that was above 4 key, not where fingers typically rest. The touchpad (87 F) and keyboard deck (88.5 F) remained cooler, though. The bottom of the laptop topped out at 108.5 F, toward the back where the CPU lives. Internally, the Core 5 320’s cores averaged a toasty 87.49 degrees Celsius, with the pair of P cores occasionally spiking to 100 C (TJMax), indicating there is some thermal throttling.

The high temps here perhaps explain in part why Dell opted to use two fans in the XPS 13. And while there is some light fan noise when the laptop is under heavy CPU stress, the sound isn’t sharp or otherwise annoying – at least to my middle-aged ears.

Webcam on the Dell XPS 13 (2026)

The webcam on the XPS 13 is “only” 1080p, but it delivered enough detail, generally accurate colors, and handled bright light from windows and overhead fixtures pretty well. And unlike some of the XPS models from yesteryear, it also sits in the top center of the bezel, where it belongs.

There is some graininess when viewing things at full screen, but it’s far from the worst I’ve seen. This camera is perfectly capable of handling typical online meetings or classes without making most people want to plug in one of the best webcams instead.

Software on the Dell XPS 13 (2026)

Considering its fairly affordable price, I was pleasantly surprised at how clean and pristine the Windows 11 Home OS is on the XPS 13. You get some of the typical Windows cruft, like a shortcut to WhatsApp and LinkedIn. And there are a few Dell apps, like Optimizer (which mostly links to Windows settings and other apps) and the self-explanatory SupportAssistant. But there really isn’t anything else here, other than a bookmark in the default Edge browser to go to McAfee's website. It’s refreshing to use a new laptop with a Windows install that reminds me of custom-built PCs.

Dell XPS 13 (2026) Configurations

Dell offers the XPS 13 in two pretty similar configurations. For $699, you get an Intel Series 3 Core 5 320 CPU with a 512GB SSD and 8GB of RAM. For $200 more ($899), you get the same laptop with 16GB of RAM. Somewhat annoyingly, the 16GB model is only offered in the silver “sky” colorway, while the 8GB model is available in both “sky” and a darker gray “storm.”

Keeping the SKUs simple is doubtlessly one way that Dell is keeping costs down. And obviously the cost and availability of RAM and storage is tough this year. But it still would be nice to see at least a 1TB option for those who need more room for local files.

Bottom Line

While it’s no performance powerhouse, and $200 extra for a doubling of the RAM to a more comfortable 16GB still feels like a lot even in these times of endless AI demand, Dell’s redesigned XPS 13 is an excellent budget or mid-range machine (depending on which model you choose). It’s light and slim enough that you’ll likely hardly notice it in a backpack, and with over 14 hours of battery life in our testing, it lasts longer than the MacBook Neo.

Is it better than the MacBook Neo? In some ways, like the aforementioned battery life, keyboard backlighting, and weight, it is for sure. And for those worried about the limitations of 8GB, you can at least pay extra (again, that’s $200 extra) for 16GB with the XPS system. Really, though, the two devices are close enough in terms of performance, build quality, and portability that, if you are considering one or the other, you should probably choose the one with the operating system you prefer.

The fact that Windows has a competitive machine to the disruptive MacBook Neo is a triumph for Dell, for Microsoft’s ecosystem, and for those of us (like me) who would just prefer not to get sucked into the Apple hardware orbit – not that Windows 11 doesn’t have a big basket full of flaws. Given how expensive everything else is these days (including most flagship premium laptops), it’s nice that Dell and Apple are delivering devices that look and feel good, without costing $1,000 or more. I wonder what the other PC makers will offer up to compete in this new $699-$899 premium laptop space.

Qualcomm has updated its benchmark slides for the new Snapdragon C chip targeting laptops as inexpensive as $300. Nearly a week after the company originally revealed the Snapdragon C's specs and performance, it reached out asking Tom's Hardware (and presumably other publications) to replace a slide with Qualcomm's power efficiency benchmarks with an updated slide, which now includes two fewer results.

You can see the old slide and updated slide in the gallery above. The results are the same between them. However, the updated slide removes the idle apps and web browsing results. A Qualcomm representative says the change was made to "improve clarity and relevance," though the removal of the tests so long after the original announcement raises more questions than it answers. We've asked Qualcomm if there's any additional reason why it removed these results.

The company asked Tom's Hardware to replace our usage of the original slide with the updated version, though a retraction of published benchmarks carries a bit more weight than a simple update. It's unclear, at this point, why Qualcomm is making the change outside of the statement provided about improving clarity. The reason why really doesn't matter, however. Qualcomm made claims about the efficiency of Snapdragon C nearly a week ago, and now those claims have changed.

One thing you'll notice is that the two results that were removed use "ABL" in front of the test. We're not sure what this acronym is in reference to. Presumably, it's not the Advanced Business Language, a scripting language tailored for enterprise database applications. It could mean "all-day battery life" or something similar, which would make sense. We've asked Qualcomm what ABL is in reference to in its slides.

The benchmarks compare Intel's N250, a quad-core chip built on Intel 7 that operates at up to 3.8 GHz, against the Snapdragon C. Qualcomm's latest chip comes with eight Kryo CPU cores, which can boost up to 3 GHz on a single core, and up to 2 GHz across all cores. Even without the removed results, there are a few important notes about Qualcomm's testing.

First, Qualcomm didn't test on AC power, but rather compared the Snapdragon C to the Intel N250 on battery power. We expect to see how performance out of the Intel N250 with AC power compares to battery power (Snapdragon chips generally have a narrow window of performance across both AC and battery power). More relevant for the efficiency claims are the comparison platforms, however.

Qualcomm used a reference 16-inch device with Snapdragon C and compared it to an 11.6-inch Acer TravelMate with the Intel N250. The company says the N250 machine had "total power configured to match 16" screen." That presumably means Qualcomm is looking at total system power, though it's hard to say for sure. The benchmarks provided don't include concrete numbers or units, but vague comparisons to the N250.

We’re so used to testing cutting-edge, top-end laptops with high price tags that a decently equipped portable that isn’t priced around $2,000 can feel refreshing. And with price increases happening seemingly everywhere, the average laptop buyer probably feels the same.

Enter Acer’s Swift Go 16 AI, a 16-inch portable with an IPS touchscreen, a premium-ish metal shell, AMD Ryzen AI 7 445 processor, and 16GB of RAM paired with 1TB of storage, plus a 7-inch (diagonal) touchpad. It won’t break any performance ground, but it was a solid deal when it was on sale for $799. At its current MSRP price of $1,149, it’s a lot harder to argue for – especially when the silver-shelled Intel-based model (which halves the storage to 512GB but ups the screen tech to OLED) was on sale for just $699 at Best Buy when I wrote this.

Design of the Acer Swift Go 16 AI (Gorgon Point)

The design of Acer’s Swift Go 16 AI packs more positives than negatives, but it is still a mixed bag. Perhaps due to its size, it feels lighter than its 3.53-pound weight, and its aluminum shell (black with zig-zagging slim lines on the lid) puts it head and shoulders above budget offerings. It’s also fairly svelte for a big-screen laptop, at 14 x 9.9 x 0.63 inches.

Port selection is also good, with a pair of USB-C ports, a USB-A port, and HDMI on the left edge.

The right edge houses a Kensington lock slot, another USB-A port, a headset jack, and a microSD card slot.

Also here is the charging indicator light, which is an odd choice since the charging ports are on the other side of the laptop. After plugging the laptop into the charger on my test bench, I had to lean across the laptop just to see if it was charging.

The hinge also lets the screen recline all the way down to 180 degrees, although doing this makes viewing angle issues pretty apparent, as you lose most of the visible brightness.

The metal shell also has more than a little flex, both on the lid and the keyboard, though I noticed it more on the lid every time I closed the laptop. The lid also developed smudges that I couldn’t wipe away, even with a damp cloth and some elbow grease, during my time with it – and for a good chunk of that time it was just sitting untouched on my coffee table. Note, though, that the smudges are a lot less visible when the laptop isn’t sitting under photography lights.

Acer Swift Go 16 AI (the SFG16-A71T-R5UY) Specifications

A warning about magnetic watch bands

Before jumping into the test results, a quick note about a unique (at least to me) issue I had when using the laptop: About half the time when I moved my hands toward the keyboard to type or launch a program, the screen would briefly dim, and then I would be kicked out to the Windows 11 login screen. This eventually happened so frequently that I thought the laptop had some sort of electrical defect, and asked Acer about the problem.

However, as I was demonstrating the issue to a colleague in the office, he wondered aloud whether my watch band might be causing it. I hadn’t thought of that, as I’ve been testing laptops for well over a decade, much of that time while wearing a watch, and have never experienced this issue before. I’ve also had the current band for my Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 for about 14 months, during which time I’ve used countless laptops to a greater or lesser degree. But the band does have a magnetic clasp on the bottom, and sure enough, as soon as I took the band off, or even put it on my left wrist instead of my right, the issue where the screen went black and kicked me out to the login screen went away.

I tried replicating the issue with my watch band and several other laptops, but could not. So the Acer Swift Go 16 AI’s lid sensor does seem particularly sensitive to magnets (I was also able to replicate the issue on the Acer using other magnets and the magnetic band from someone else’s Apple Watch). But it’s a quirk that will mostly plague left-handed people who have magnetic watch clasps – or the odd people like me who wear their watch also on their right wrist.

Productivity Performance on the Acer Swift Go 16 AI

We tested Acer’s Swift Go 16 AI in its sole AMD-based Best Buy configuration, sporting a Ryzen AI 7 445 (Gorgon Point) CPU and integrated Radeon 840M graphics, as well as 16GB of LPDDR5X RAM and a 1TB SSD.

The Ryzen AI 7 445 is a mid-range chip in AMD’s refreshed lineup, with six cores, 12 threads, and an NPU capable of 50 TOPS for all your Copilot+ and other local AI needs.

Most of the systems we’ve looked at this year are pricier than the Acer, which could make the laptop look bad in our charts. But our comparison systems also cost more. There’s Apple’s 13-inch MacBook Air ($1,299) using a 10-core M5, followed by two 14-inch laptops: Dell’s XPS 14 ($2,199) leverages a Core Ultra X7 358H while Lenovo’s Yoga Slim 7i Aura Edition ($1,629) uses a Core Ultra 7 355.

On Geekbench 6, the Swift 16 AI was able to hang with Dell’s XPS 14, falling a bit behind in single-core, but landing ahead on the multi-core portion of the test. But the Arm-based laptops from Apple and Lenovo both easily outpaced the x86 competition.

Things looked worse for the Acer laptop in our 25GB file transfer test. Despite the company calling the laptop’s storage out as being PCIe 4, the tested speed of 847.88 MBps is less than half that of the drives in the competing laptops. Still, the Acer drive is fast enough that you won’t likely notice the difference in most common tasks.

On Handbrake, the Acer managed to best the XPS 14 once again (thanks largely to its extra threads). But again, the Arm-based competition, and particularly Lenovo’s Qualcomm-based Yoga Slim 7x, destroys the Acer, converting our 4K video to 1080p in roughly a third of the time it took the Swift Go 16 AI.

The Swift Go 16 AI’s average transfer speed in our 25GB file transfer test was a slow (ish) 847.88 MBps. That’s less than half the speed of any of its laptop competition here, but these are also all pricier laptops. Faster would certainly be better, but the drive in the Acer is plenty fast enough for typical mainstream tasks.

To stress test the CPU in laptops, we run 10 loops of Cinebench 2026. The system started with a score of 2,315, ramped as high as 2487 by the fourth run, and held fairly steady, dropping back to 2468 on the penultimate run, before recovering and finishing at 2,480. During the test, the laptop’s Ryzen AI 7 445 CPU ran at an average frequency of 3.47 GHz.

Graphics on the Acer Swift Go 16 AI

The laptop’s 840M graphics are integrated. But thanks to being paired with an X86 CPU, they can certainly run more games than the Arm-based Apple and Lenovo laptop competition. But on paper, the competition has a clear edge.

In 3DMark Steel Nomad, the Acer Swift Go 16 AI turned in a score of 234, which is slightly less than half that of the Dell XPS 14 (with its four Xe3 cores) more than doubled that, while both the MacBook Air and Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x quadrupled the Swift Go’s showing. Again, though, keep in mind that the Acer, while not as powerful on the graphics front, will run more PC games than either the MacBook or Qualcomm-powered Lenovo.

Display on the Acer Swift Go 16 AI

Acer sells the Swift Go 16 AI with a single panel in the AMD-based configuration, a 1,920 x 1,200-resolution IPS panel with a 120 Hz refresh rate. The Intel-based version ups the ante with an OLED display, which sounds like an upgrade, but Best Buy lists that screen at just 250 nits. The IPS screen on our AMD model at least gets brighter than that.

When I watched the story trailer for Marvel’s Wolverine for the PS5, the dress Jean Gray wore in one scene was a vivid green, while the aura of her telekinesis popped in a hue somewhere between magenta and purple, while the often gore-speckled yellow of Logan’s suit looked a bit subdued. In general, colors looked good, and brightness was sufficient. But I did miss the inky blacks of the OLED screens on my Lenovo X9 laptop and my LG TV. That said, if this laptop panel was what I used for work every day, I don’t think I would have any serious complaints. It looks great unless you have something better to compare it to side-by-side.

Our display testing pegged the Acer’s screen at 336 nits, which edged out the Lenovo, but both the XPS 14 and Apple were significantly brighter. Still, the IPS Acer screen delivered more colors than the Dell or Apple laptops, with 121.8% of the sRGB gamut and 86.3% of the larger DCI-P3. In short, this is quite a good screen for a laptop that isn’t a flagship machine. It’s not the brightest of panels, and I did keep it mostly at 100% brightness while using it, it never once felt dimmer than I would have liked.

Keyboard and touchpad on the Acer Swift Go 16 AI

I found typing on the Acer Swift Go 16 AI to be largely fine, with no major complaints. The flat keys don’t offer the best feel or the most generous key travel. And the left and right arrow keys look comically large compared to their up / down counterparts.

The real oddity here is the inclusion of a squished number pad. There clearly isn’t room for anything larger, and I am sure those who find a number pad a necessity would rather have narrow numbers on the right side rather than no numbers. But the layout here makes the keyboard look and – to some extent – feel cramped. Considering this is a pretty large, 16-inch laptop, that’s a somewhat impressive design achievement.

The large, 7-inch touchpad is one of the Swift Go 16 AI’s stand-out features, and while nothing particularly ground-breaking, there are more features to cover than are typical in a laptop.

The touchpad isn’t haptic, but it is covered in Corning Gorilla Glass, and feels fairly premium. It worked well for basic and multi-finger gesture tasks during my time with it. And for tasks like media control and meetings, there are backlit touch buttons that appear when you, say, go to YouTube or launch Teams, letting you control media, volume, and switch to full-screen playback.

We’ve seen similar ideas from Acer and others. I’m not generally a fan of the general idea, but the touch features worked well enough to serve as controls while I watched YouTube. And Acer makes the buttons appear and disappear when you open compatible apps and websites, so it’s not something you have to think about much. You can also turn it off by hitting the X on the bottom-right corner of the touchpad when the lighting appears.

Audio on the Acer Swift Go 16 AI

The pair of downward-firing speakers on the Swift Go 16 AI are fine for meetings and casually watching video or listening to music at a desk, but don’t expect much in the way of bass or impressive volume. When I listened to my favorite test track, Buck-Tick’s “Muma - The Nightmare,” cranking the volume to 100% filled my home office space, but the sound was a little harsh at that volume. Dropping down to 80% or below resulted in better sound, but of course less volume.

If you’re the type that likes to fiddle with audio details, the DTS:X Ultra software is included. It lets you adjust the EQ and select from seven presets, but the Music setting was already enabled by default, so at least for listening, the Swift Go 16 AI’s speakers sound about as good as they can out of the box.

In short, the speakers are OK for basic audio tasks, and are easily loud enough for watching video clips. But if you want to enjoy your audio, especially at higher volumes, consider pairing a decent Bluetooth speaker.

Upgradability of the Acer Swift Go 16 AI

Getting inside Swift Go 16 AI isn’t difficult, provided you have a Torx screwdriver set. Remove ten screws (the ones on the front edge are shorter, so be sure to keep them separate), and you should be able to pry off the bottom. I found a small plastic spudger helpful for getting started, but once I worked a few clips free, the metal bottom lifted right off.

There’s little to do while you’re in there, though. You could swap the standard 2280 M.2 boot drive, or replace the MediaTek wireless card. But as is standard for anything that isn’t a gaming laptop / workstation or a Framework these days, the RAM is soldered down.

Battery life on the Acer Swift Go 16 AI

Unplugged longevity isn’t exactly a strong suit of this Acer, but it still manages a respectable 9.5 hours in our battery test, which consists of web browsing, running OpenGL tests, and streaming videos with the screen at 150 nits while connected to Wi-Fi. That was enough to beat the more powerful Lenovo by 46 minutes, but the Dell and Apple laptops did significantly better. Keep in mind, though, that the Acer has a larger, 16-inch screen than the competition here, which are 13- and 14-inchers, and there’s not much to complain about. Battery life is solid, just like many aspects of the Swift Go 16 AI.

Heat on the Acer Swift Go 16 AI

During our 10-loop Cinebench 2026 stress test, the Swift Go 16 AI’s surface temperatures remained relatively tepid for a slim laptop. We measured a peak of 87 degrees Fahrenheit on the touchpad, 100.5 between the G and H keys, and 114 F on the underside, near the back center. Internally, the Ryzen AI 7 445’s average temperature was 66.9 C across all cores.

Webcam on the Acer Swift Go 16 AI

The webcam on the Swift Go AI is a step above mainstream options, at least on paper. It has an IR sensor for Windows Hello login, and Acer says the sensor supports IR and is capable of recording video up to 1800p at 30 FPS. The Camera app limited me to 2560 x 1600, which is still good for a mainstream laptop. Colors were generally accurate, and I did notice more detail in my beard than most 1080p models. But the camera still struggles with blown-out light from nearby windows.

Acer claims there is Temporal Noise Reduction at play here to keep pixels from looking grainy. Generally, I didn’t see any graininess, but the process also results in images and video that look soft when viewed at full size. In all, webcam performance feels like more than an afterthought, but isn’t the best I’ve seen. At this price, that’s perfectly fine.

Software on the Acer Swift Go 16 AI

There is a significant amount of adware and software bloat pre-baked into this Acer’s operating system. On the taskbar alone, you’ll find pins for Forge of Empires, Dropbox, and Booking.com. The start menu includes a couple more games: Elvenar and Amazing Block Blast, as well as WhatsApp, LinkedIn, and AcerSense. I also found ExpressVPN in the installed apps folder.

Oddly, AcerSense, the company’s own app for checking the status and health of the laptop’s various components, and changing power modes, wasn’t actually installed. When I clicked on it, a launcher started downloading. I would just delete it, like most of the cruft here. If you’re an absolute novice at recent versions of Windows, it might be a little helpful, but most of what it does and shows you is also available within Windows itself.

While I wouldn’t quite call this a serious excess of unnecessary and unhelpful software (in other words, I have seen worse), there is quite a lot here. When the laptop is on sale for hundreds off its MSRP, it feels like a necessary evil in these days of higher prices. But if you’re paying close to the $1,149 MSRP, you shouldn’t have to deal with this much bloat.

Acer Swift Go 16 AI Configurations

Acer sells AMD and Intel versions of the Swift Go 16 AI at Best Buy. Our black AMD-based model ships with a Ryzen AI 7 445 CPU, 16GB of RAM, and a 1TB SSD. Its price ranged significantly from $799 to the $1,149 MSRP while I worked on this review. A higher-end AMD model ups the RAM to 32GB, the CPU to a Ryzen 9 465, for $1,499.

On the Intel side, there’s an Intel Core Ultra 5 version that halves the storage (512GB) but opts for an OLED screen with the same 1,920 x 1,200 resolution. That was selling for an enticing $699 ($300 off) as I wrote this. If you can get it at that price, this model is the clear bargain of the bunch. But a beefier Intel option with a Core Ultra 7 355 and 32GB of RAM at $1,169 ($1,549 MSRP) also isn’t bad if you need more power and memory.

Bottom Line

If you’re after a larger-screen laptop that doesn’t feel like a budget machine, there’s a lot to like with the Swift Go 16 AI – especially when it’s on sale. The AMD-based model we tested delivered solid performance and a good IPS screen. The SSD is slower than its pricier competition, but it wasn’t so slow that you’re likely to notice during typical tasks.

There is also more bloatware than is typical in laptops around the $1,000 price point, but it’s easy enough to uninstall. Just keep an eye on the pricing, which swung significantly between $799, $999, and $1,049 in the weeks when I was working on this review. And don’t discount the silver Intel Core Ultra 5 322-based model, which drops the storage down to 512GB, but includes an OLED screen. That model dipped as low as $699 in recent weeks, but has now jumped back up to $999. Either model is worth considering, and both are great values when priced below $800.

If you’re looking for the absolute best performance in a gaming laptop, then you’ll likely want to consider a desktop replacement. If you’re in the market, the HyperX Omen Max 16 makes a strong case with a 16-inch form factor and a thick chassis that accommodates some beefy hardware.

Our review unit carries a sticker price of $4,699, packs a Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus processor, and includes an RTX 5090 GPU. It also tips the scales at 6.56 pounds, making it a more suitable companion for your desk than for lugging around while traveling.

Despite its imposing dimensions and beefy hardware, the Omen Max 16 doesn’t quite pass muster in performance against its slimmer competitors among the best gaming laptops.

Design of the HyperX Omen Max 16

“Solid, solid as a rock,” is the phrase that comes to mind when describing the Omen Max 16. The laptop feels like it was forged from a solid piece of granite, but in actuality, it’s aluminum. It’s also thick, measuring 1.13 inches at its thickest point (at the rear).

To my eyes, the Omen Max 16 is attractively designed with no outrageous styling gimmicks. The aluminum is coated in a matte black finish, and design flourishes (like the O16 printed vertically along the deck and the HyperX logo on the lid) are subdued and don't draw significant attention. There’s also a laser-etched grille that runs nearly the width of the chassis that sits above the keyboard.

The only thing that really clues you into the gaming nature of the laptop (other than its sheer size) is the per-key RGB lighting for the keyboard, and a single LED strip on the bottom front edge of the chassis that you can configure with the Omen software.

When it comes to external ports, the Omen Max 16 has a USB-A (10 Gbps) port, two Thunderbolt 4 ports, and a 3.5 mm audio jack on the left. On the right side of the chassis, you'll find another USB-A port. The back panel of the laptop is home to an HDMI 2.1 port, a 2.5 GbE port, and a proprietary power port (a 460W GaN power adapter is included).

The Omen Max 16 measures 14.04 x 10.59 x 1.03 inches and weighs 6.56 pounds. For comparison's sake, the Razer Blade 16 is 13.98 x 9.86 x 0.69 inches and weighs 4.71 pounds. The MSI Raider 16 HX comes in at 14.29 x 10.62 x 1.14 inches and weighs 5.73 pounds. The Alienware 16 Area-51 weighs 7.49 pounds and measures 14.37 x 11.41 x 1.12 inches.

HyperX Omen Max 16 Specifications

Gaming and Graphics on the HyperX Omen Max 16

The Omen Max 16 is equipped with an Intel Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus processor, 32GB of RAM, and an RTX 5090 GPU (175W TGP). Given these specs and a sizable chassis to aid cooling (300W total system power), I was expecting strong numbers from the Omen 16 Max. Instead, the laptop was relegated to the back of the pack, except for one game benchmark: Far Cry 6.

My game of choice these days is Battlefield 6, running at native resolution in Overkill detail mode, with DLSS Quality and frame generation enabled. Using these settings, I was able to average between 100 and 110 frames per second.

For the competitive set, we have the Blade 16 (Core Ultra 9 386H at 25W, RTX 5090 at 175W TGP), MSI Raider 16 Max HX (Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus at 55W, RTX 5090 at 175W TGP), and the Alienware 16 Area-51 (Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus at 55W, RTX 5080 at 175W TGP). It should be noted that the Omen Max 16 uses slower DDR5-6400, whereas systems like the Blade 16 use faster LPDDR5X-9600.

We started our benchmarking spree with Shadow of the Tomb Raider (Highest setting), and here the Omen Max 16 achieved 171 FPS at 1080p, putting it in last place behind the Razer Blade 16 (182 FPS). At 1600p, it landed in a comfortable third place (114 FPS) behind the Alienware 16 Area-51.

Cyberpunk 2077 (Ray Tracing Ultra settings) wasn't a strong showing for the Omen Max 16, either. It brought up last place at 1080p (59 FPS) and 1600p (37 FPS).

Far Cry 6 (Ultra settings) was the lone bright spot for the Omen Max 16, as it garnered 144 FPS at 1080p and 125 FPS at 1600p, easily putting it in first place. Both of these results far outpaced the rest of the field, with the next closest competitor being the MSI Raider 16 Max HX at 119 FPS and 114 FPS, respectively.

Moving to the Red Dead Redemption 2 (Medium settings) benchmark, the Omen Max 16 again wound up in last place, hitting 93 FPS at 1080p and 65 FPS at 1600p. However, in this instance, the margin between the Omen Max 16 and The Blade 16 at 1080p was just 1 FPS.

The Omen Max 16 again had trouble during the Borderlands 3 (Badass settings) benchmark, falling well off the pace set by its three competitors. The laptop hit 146 FPS at 1080p, nearly 20 FPS off the pace of the third-place Alienware 16 Area-51. At 1600p, it mustered just 113 FPS.

Metro Exodus is our go-to benchmark for laptop stress testing. Our review unit averaged 141.62 FPS at 1080p across 15 loops using the RTX benchmark preset. The CPU performance cores averaged 4.91 GHz, and the efficiency cores averaged 3.95 GHz. The RTX 5090 GPU ran at 1.81 GHz.

Productivity Performance on HyperX Omen Max 16

With its Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus processor, 32GB of RAM, and 2TB PCIe 5.0 SSD, the Omen Max 16 fared better in the productivity tests than it did with gaming.

On Geekbench 6, the Omen Max 16 with the Core Ultra 9 290HX was able to muscle past the Blade 16 with its Core Ultra 9 386H on both the single-core (3,182) and multi-core (17,989) benchmarks. However, the Alienware 16 Area-51 and Raider 16 Max HX, which use the same Core Ultra 9 290HX processor, achieved much higher multi-core numbers (each surpassed 20,000).

The PCIe 5.0 SSD used in the Omen Max 16 performed quite well in our 25GB file transfer test, coming in second place at 2,439.22 MBps. The Alienware 16 Area-51 was a few ticks ahead at 2,738.90 MBps.

The soft performance of the Omen Max 16 continued with our Handbrake test, which involves transcoding a 4K video file to 1080p. Here the laptop performed the task in 2 minutes and 59 seconds. However, at least one other laptop with the same Core Ultra 9 290HX did the deed in less than two minutes.

Display on the HyperX Omen Max 16

The Omen Max 16 uses a 16-inch 2560 x 1600 OLED panel with a 240 Hz refresh rate. As is the case with most OLED displays that we test, this one had a glossy finish.

Instrumented testing on the OLED panel showed it excelling against the competition, covering 131.2 percent of the DCI-P3 color space and 185.2 percent of sRGB. Even better, the Omen Max 16 nudged past the Raider 16 Max HX to also take the crown for panel brightness (464.6 nits versus 455.6 nits).

OLED panels rarely disappoint, and I was more than impressed with the overall quality and brightness. The brightness was high enough that I was able to game while on my back porch during a partly cloudy day with minimal interference from reflections on the glossy panel.

I also viewed the first Avengers: Doomsday trailer using the display, and besides getting a tiny bit emotional while watching it, was delighted with the color reproduction, particularly in the short battle between Gambit and Shang-Chi, with flashes of purple playing cards and orange rings.

Keyboard and Touchpad on the HyperX Omen Max 16

The Omen Max 16 features a full-size RGB backlit keyboard (with per-key lighting) and NKRO anti-ghosting technology. RGB effects are customizable using HP's Omen app or directly from within Windows 11.

The keys felt quite springy when typing, and I found it incredibly comfortable to rest my fingers and click away. And while some keyboards audibly make their presence known as you type at a furious pace, the key actuation on the Omen Max 16 was whisper-quiet.

Turning my attention to the Keyhero.com typing test, I plugged away at 95 words per minute with 97% accuracy, which is definitely on the high side for me (I’m usually in the mid-80s realm).

Given the Omen Max 16 price tag of over $4,500, I was disappointed that HP didn’t go with a haptic touchpad. Instead, we get a top-hinged trackpad that is just OK. It gets the job done, but for this much money, I’d prefer to be able to click anywhere on the touchpad surface without hitting a dead zone. At least while gaming, you probably use a mouse or controller.

Audio on the HyperX Omen Max 16

Audio quality is another area where I think HP missed the mark. To beat a dead horse, but this is a laptop that retails for $4,699, and it only comes with stereo speakers. Would it have killed HP to add another pair of speakers in this tank of a chassis?

While the speakers had good overall volume levels, I felt the sound lacked some depth compared to similarly priced laptops with four (Raider 16 Max HX) or even six speakers (Blade 16). While I was more than happy listening to Keane’s “Fly to Me” from the album Hopes and Fears, I was disappointed in the sound while playing Battlefield 6.

When it came to gunfire, vehicle sounds, and background explosions while gaming, I wasn't impressed. I prefer throwing on a pair of the best gaming headsets, but there’s still no excuse to drop the ball at this price point.

Upgradeability of the HyperX Omen Max 16

Six screws need to be extracted to remove the bottom aluminum panel. While that was easy enough, it’s only half the battle. All of the serviceable components (save for the readily accessible battery) are underneath an extensive metal shield. That shield is held in place by roughly a dozen screws, making upgrades a bit tedious.

Once the shield is removed, you’ll find access to the M.2 slot for the Wi-Fi/Bluetooth module, two SO-DIMM slots (both of which were filled on our review unit), and an additional M.2 slot for a second SSD. Yet another metal shield covers the first M.2 SSD slot, although I didn’t go through the process of removing another dozen screws to uncover it.

Battery Life on the HyperX Omen Max 16

Despite its considerable girth, the Omen Max 16 is equipped with just an 83 WHr battery. For comparison, the thinner and lighter Blade 16 manages to squeeze in a 90 WHr battery.

The Omen Max 16 lasted 5 hours and 7 minutes on our battery test, which consists of web browsing, video streaming over Wi-Fi, and OpenGL testing with the screen brightness set at 150 nits. This was over three hours shorter than the Raider 16 Max HX, while the Blade 16 lasted over twice as long on a charge (12:46).

Heat on the HyperX Omen Max 16

During the Metro Exodus stress test, we measured the Omen Max 16's keyboard at 106 degrees Fahrenheit (F) between the G and H keys, while the touchpad was 84.9 F.

The hottest part of the laptop was near the rear center of the bottom of the chassis, which measured 114 F.

While running the Metro Exodus stress test, the CPU measured 87 degrees Celsius (C). Meanwhile, the RTX 5090 was cooler at 75 C.

Webcam on the HyperX Omen Max 16

Another area where it feels like HP skimped is with the webcam. Rather than going with a higher resolution unit, the Omen Max 16 features a bog-standard 1080p unit that looks about as good as one you’d find in a $1,000 entry-level gaming laptop.

The camera didn’t do particularly well with a nearby window where light was shining through, and there were a lot of noise artifacts in less-than-ideal light conditions. In addition, the camera didn’t really pick up fine details well, which is disappointing considering the price.

Software and Warranty on the HyperX Omen Max 16

Like many HP laptops, the HyperX Omen Max 16 comes loaded with additional software bloat that you can mostly ignore or simply delete. Scrolling down the list of “H” apps in the Start Menu, HP basically set up camp with no less than eight apps/shortcuts—everything from HP Documentation to HP Privacy Settings to HP TV+. In addition, you’ll find the usual third-party add-ons like McAfee and promotional links for Dropbox, Adobe, and Booking.com.

The only really useful preinstalled app is the Omen Gaming Hub. It gives you control over power modes, lets you see CPU/GPU/RAM utilization, and provides plenty of configuration options for the onboard RGB lighting.

The Omen Max 16 comes with a one-year manufacturer warranty.

HyperX Omen Max 16 Configurations

Our Omen Max 16 came configured with an Intel Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus processor, 32GB of DDR5-6400 memory, a 2TB PCIe 5.0 SSD, RTX 5090 GPU, and a 16-inch 1600p 240 Hz OLED display. The MSRP on our review unit was a staggering $4,699.99.

There are also several less expensive options, with the cheapest being a $2,699 SKU with a Core Ultra 7 270HX processor, 32GB of RAM, a 1TB SSD, and an RTX 5080. For $3,099, you can swap the Core Ultra 7 270HX for an AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 475 and double the SSD capacity to 2TB.

Bottom Line

The HyperX Omen Max 16 represents a swing and a miss. When I first saw the enormity of the chassis, I was looking forward to some impressive gaming performance given the 55W processor and 175W RTX 5090 onboard. Instead, what I was left with was a $4,699 gaming laptop that lingered in last place for most of the gaming benchmarks, and often by a large margin. Even the Razer Blade 16 with its 25W processor managed to get the upper hand in most benchmarks.

But the gaming wasn’t the only disappointment. Given the price tag, I would have expected a better-equipped machine. Where’s the haptic trackpad, and why do we only get two speakers? And on a minor annoyance angle, while I appreciate the two M.2 slots for storage and replaceable memory, why do I need to remove another dozen screws just to access those components?

In the end, the Omen Max 16 could have been so much more. Quite frankly, it would make sense to spend the extra $200 and grab a Razer Blade 16. Not only is it thinner and lighter (by two pounds), but it offers double the battery life.

The Lenovo LOQ Essentials 15 Gen 11 has the right idea to compete with the best budget gaming laptops: skip the flashy design extras and focus on the hardware that matters. Its RTX 5060 graphics, 144 Hz IPS display, solid keyboard, and generous internal upgrade options give budget-strapped gamers plenty to like on paper. The reality is that this configuration is compromised in the area that matters most: gaming performance. Its RTX 5060 is held back by a 65W power limit and the CPU is several generations old, allowing rival machines in the same price range to post stronger results. The LOQ is usable and practical, but at this price, it needs stronger performance to stand out.

Design of the Lenovo LOQ Essentials 15 Gen 11

Aptly named, the LOQ Essentials 15 embraces a no-frills design. Aside from LOQ branding on the lid, there’s little here meant to catch the eye, which is fitting for a laptop that’s intended to deliver performance at the lowest possible cost. Lenovo reserves premium materials and styling for its Legion gaming laptops.

Fortunately, the budget considerations are mostly aesthetic, as the LOQ’s plastic chassis feels solid and has the durability you’d expect for daily home or school use. Its 0.97-inch thick profile and 5.07-pound weight don’t make it a great traveling companion are in line with competing laptops like Acer's Nitro V 16S AI, Asus’ TUF Gaming F16, and MSI's Cyborg 15. The latter is the lightest in the group, at 4.36 pounds.

Lenovo’s port selection is practical: one USB-C port (10 Gbps), two USB-A ports (5 Gbps), an audio jack, Ethernet, and HDMI. You won't get truly high-speed ports like USB4/Thunderbolt 4 at this price. The Intel AX203 Wi-Fi 6 card is another example of this laptop's economical focus, though it shouldn't hold users back.

Lenovo LOQ Essentials 15 Gen 11 Specifications